
6UKRir>AN's RIDK TO TllK KRO.N J'. 



Personal Recollections 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 



WILLIAM F. G. SHANKS. 



NEW YORK: 
HAEPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

1866. 



Ox-7f6/ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eiglit hundred and sixty-six, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
of New York. 



V 



PREFACE. 



The purpose of this volume is to make more flimiliar 
to the general public the actual characters of some of our 
great military leaders during the late war. I have at- 
tempted to portray them not as on parade, but in undress 
uniform, and to illustrate not only their great military 
qualities, but more particularly their mental peculiarities 
and characteristics. These pages will be found to contain 
many facts about some of the great battles which ofiTicial 
reports have left untold, with such recollections of our 
generals as history proper will not perhaps condescend 
to record, and to embrace singular facts about great cam- 
paigns and strange stories of great men. The portraits 
are freely drawn. They are made from actual studies, 
if not special sittings, and while taking care to give every 
beauty, I have omitted none of the deformities or blem- 
ishes of my subjects, though I have told in full detail 
their virtues, and have touched on their faults and vices 
lightly. I have avoided alike extreme extravagance in 
praise or censure. Still there is enough shadow to the 
pictures to give the necessary, if not agreeable contrast 
to the lights. The reader must not, however, mistake 
the stand-point from which I have written. Distance, un- 
fortunately for truth, lends enchantment not only to ob- 
jects, but to men. The atmosphere of Olympus produces 



VI PREFACE. 



many phantasmagoria, and the great at a distance exist 
to our ejes in a sort of mirage. The philosophy of per- 
spective as applied to natural objects is reversed when 
applied to mankind, and there are very few men who do 
not grow smaller as one approaches them. Most men 
are pyramidal in shape only, not proportions. "No man 
is a hero to his valet." Even Jupiter was ridiculous at 
times to Homer. Very few generals have appeared great 
to the war correspondents ; and though very few of the 
latter can claim to be descendants of Diogenes, they can 
assert, with equal positiveness, that very few of the gen- 
erals have been Alexanders, and that " the very sun 
shines through them." I have written under the disad- 
vantage of being too near the objects drawn ; and those 
who do not know the subjects as well may imagine I 
have made them undeservedly Liliputian in dimensions. 
Writing contemporaneous history is the most thank- 
less of tasks, and I discover also one of the least inde-. 
pendent of labors. Still I have not written with a goose- 
quill, and there has been some gall in my ink, yet I do 
not think I have any thing in the ensuing chapters to 
blot. I do not think I have done any man injustice. 
I have written many sentences and made many assertions 
which will doubtless be termed strong, but in writing 
these I am only the amanuensis of truth ; and I write 
with the Urm belief that " historical truth should be only 
less sacred than religious truth." 

I have no doubt, however, that others will think dif- 
ferently after perusing the book. When publishing in 
Harper's Magazine I was told that the language of some 
of these sketches offended the subjects, but I have been 



PREFACE. Vll 

unable to find any fact that ought to be stated otherwise. 
I think it best to say, for the benefit of all who may 
choose to object or condemn the volume as now publish- 
ed, that I have written nothing that I do not believe to 
be true — I trust not one sentence that, dying, I would 
wish to blot, and certainly not one word that, living, I 
intend to retract. 

New York, Sepi, 18G6. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

SHERMAN AS A STKATEGIST. 

The most original Character developed by the War. — No Parallel for 
Slierman. — His nervous Energy the secret of his great Success. — 
Incidents illustrative of his great Energy. — Restlessness of Manner 
and nervousness of Expression in Conversation. — His bad Temper. — 
Appearance* in Battle and under Excitement. — Vigorous Style as a 
Writer. — He ought to have been a War Correspondent rather thjin a 
General. — The Story of his Lunacy. — How it originated. — Method in 
his Madness. — Habit of Decision. — How he came to leave the Law 
and return to the Army. — His uncontrollable Temper nearly Ruins 
him. — The Quarrel with Halleck and Stanton. — Failure as a Tac- 
tician and Disciplinarian. — All his Battles Defeats. — Never won a 
Battle. — His great strategic Marches. — The Campaign of Atlanta 
his greatest Achievement. — Joe Johnston a Foeman worthy of his 
Steel. — Sherman's Egotism. — His dislike for Correspondents and in- 
dependence of the Press mere Affectation. — Nicknames bestowed on 
him by the Soldiers. — An inveterate Smoker. — His personal Appear- 
ance Page 17 

CHAPTER II. 

THOMAS AS A TACTICIAX. 

Sherman and Thomas match Horses. — A Contrast drawn between tliem. 
— Methodical Habits of Thomas. — System necessary to his Existence. 
— Fury of his Anger when aroused. — Great Self-control and Coolness 
in Danger. — Illustrative Incidents of his Imperturbability. — Cold-blood- 
ed upon Principle. — He Studies to avoid the display of his Emotions. 
— Personal Description and Habits in Camp. — His tactical Ability. — 

A 2 



X CONTENTS. 

Affection of Jiis Soldiers for Thomas. — Tlie Bayard of the Army. 

His uniform Success as a Commander. — Thomas entitled to the 
Credit of Sherman's March to the Sea. — The Battles of that Cam- 
paign fought at Nashville by Thomas. — The Battle at Nashville his 
greatest Action Page 58 

CHAPTER III. 

GRANT AS A GENERAL. 

Tlic proper Conception of his Character.— Grant a Combination of Sher- 
man and Thomas.— Contrasted with Lee.— Resemblance between Grant 
and Sherman.— Energy of both. — Comparison between Grant and 
Thomas. — The Persistence and Tenacity of each. — Grant's Practica- 
bility and Magnanimity.— His Taciturnity.— His Idea of Strategy.— 
His numerous Battles the most successful and important of the War.— 
Campaign at Chattanooga and Knoxville. — The remarkable Cam- 
paign to the Rear of Richmond the most brilliant of the War. — His 
great Vice, a Habit of Smoking. — His great Weakness, a Love of 
Horses.— Grant and Sherman as Damon and Pythias. — His Generos- 
ity to his Subordinates. — Superiority to his principal Leaders. — What 
his Character in the Future will be 91 

CHAPTER IV. 

SHERIDAN AS A CAVALRYMAN. 

The Union Cause rich in its Leadership. — The Rebellion very weak. 

Sheridan one of the most able of our Leaders.- A Jliracle of War. — 

An Inspiration rather than a General. — A "Fighting" General. 

Reminiscences of his Youth.— His Career as a "belligerent Cadet" at 
West Point.— His Class-mates and their Success. — Sheridan and Hood 
compared. — Sheridan's early Career as a Lieutenant and Failure as a 
Quarter-master.— A Favorite with both Grant and Halleck.— Sheridan 
a Colonel of Cavalry.— His first Cavalry Victory.— Promoted Briga- 
dier General of Infantry.— Repeated Defeats as a Commander of In- 
fantry. — His Failures at Stone River and Chickamauga.— Success in 
Pursuit of Bragg from Tullahoma and at Chattanooga. — Promoted to 
the Command of all Grant's Cavalry.— His Success in this Capacity. 
— The Belligerent in his Organization. — Personal Appearance and 
Habits. — A modern Scipio 128 



0OXTKNT8. Xi 

CHAPTER V. 

FIGHTING JOB HOOKER. 

General Hooker a Cosmopolitan — Naturally "a Fighting General." — 
Career in Mexico. — Diiiiculties in obtaining a Command. — His 
inspiring Presence. — Critical Account of his "Battle above the 
Clouds." — He manufactures the Clouds in order to fight above them. 
— His Weakness consists in his Disposition to criticise every thing. — 
His Candor. — Opinion of McClellan. — "The young Napoleon con- 
ducting War in order to get into the best Society." — Hooker's Vanity 
and Valor. — How he obtained a Command. — Sharp Criticisms in of- 
ficial Reports. — Hooker's Criticism on Sherman. — His untiring En- 
ergy. — The Title of Fighting Joe offensive to him. — How it was ob- 
tained. — Personal Description and Habits Page 1C5 

CHAPTER VI. • 

RECOLLECTIONS OP ROUSSEAU. 

Strategic versus fighting Generals. — Strategy always an Excuse for mili- 
tary Failures — Four fighting Generals compared. — Rousseau natu- 
rally a Leader of Men. — His early Career. — He Acts as "the Member 
from Louisville, Kentucky," in the Indiana Senate. — Always in the 
Minority and always Popular. — Adventures in Kentucky as a criminal 
Lawyer. — Success as a special Pleader. — Startling Adventure in De- 
fense of four Negroes charged with Murder. — Election to the Kentuckj' 
State Senate. — The true Story of Kentucky Neutrality. — Simon Boli- 
var Buckner and his Schemes. — How they were frustrated by Rous- 
seau. — Denunciation of Neutrality. — Forcing an Issue. — Division of 
the State Guard into two rival Organizations. — Defection of the "Lex- 
ington Chasseurs." — How Rousseau obtained Authority to raise Troops 
for the United States Service. — Opposition of the neutral Union Men 
lo his Scheme. — How he overcame their Objections. — Himself and 
Troops exiled. — Singular Scenes in the neutral State. — Recruiting for 
both Armies in the same City. — Sad Divisions created in Families. — 
A Rebel and Union Praying-match. — The News of the Bull Run Dis- 
aster in Louisville. — The Secessionists take Possession of the City. — A 
Riot instantaneously quelled. — A Peace Meeting turned to a War Gath- 
ering. - Rousseau's Parade thi'ough Louisville. — Buckner's traitorous 



Scheme, and what was to have been cfifected by it. — Attempt to seize 
the City. — Rousseau saves it from Capture. — A neutral Editor's His- 
tory of Neutrality. — Popularity of Rousseau with his People. — His 
military Career. — Great Daring at Perry ville. — Incidents of that Bat- 
tle. — Admiration of his Men for Rousseau. — New Mode of taking Care 
of Prisoners. — Sherman's Idea of Rousseau's Raid to the Rear of 
Hood's Army. — Return to political Life. — His Crusade against Slav- 
ery. — Intimacy between Rousseau and Sherman. — Personal Appear- 
ance of Rousseau Page 193 

CHAPTER VII. 

PECULIARITIES OF VARIOUS GENERALS. 

General Don Carlos Buell. — One of the greatest Generals, also one of 
the greatest Failures of the War. — Buell too methodical to be prac- 
tical. — Weakness of his Army Organization. — Three Corps Command- 
ers vv'ithout Ability. — Perryville a Battle lost by Jealousy of our Com- 
manders. — Quarrel between Buell and Governor Johnson of Tennessee. 
— The true Story of the proposed Evacuation of Nashville. — Thomas 
and Buell compared. — William Starke Rosecrans a great Failure. — 
His utter Incompetency. — His extreme Nervousness unfitting him for a 
Command. — His Campaign of Chickamauga one Series of Mistakes. 
— The Battle an unnecessary Slaughter. — The worst managed Battle 
of the War. — Rosecrans not on the Field. — Gordon Granger's Pecul- 
iarities. — His Predilection for artillery Fights. — His Resemblance to 
Jo8 Hooker. — Retort upon Sherman. — "Living off the Country." — 
His Opinion of Gideon Pillow and "painted Mules." — Grief at the 
Death of Captain Russell. — "Old Steady" Steedman one of the most 
positive Men of the War. — His Boldness and Impudence. — Daring 
Charge at Chickamauga. — His March from Chattanooga to Nashville 
to ask for Orders. — His Faith in Negro Troops. — Generals Wood and 
Negley the Victims of Chickamauga. — Military Character of each. — 
General Howard a Soldier on Principle. — His firm Faith in the Cause 
and its Success. — Methodical Turn of Mind. — Religious Habits and 
Training. — Mayor William H. Sidell as Sherman's Counterpart. — 
General John A. Logan the representative General of the Western 
Army. — His Readiness in Emergencies, and his great personal Dar- 
ing. — Genera] John W. Geary's adventurous Career. — His famous 
midnight Battle with Longstreet, and how he defeated him 242 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

CHAPTER VIII. 

SOME PECULIARITIES OF OUK VETERANS. 

Superiority of educated over uneducated Soldiers.— Contrast in the/;e?-- 
sonnd of European and American, between Union and Rebel, and be- 
tween Eastern and Western Troops.— Superiority of the Union Ar- 
mies.— Anecdotes and Incidents illustrating the Peculiarities of our 
Veterans Page 321 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Sheridan's Ride to the Front p. 



William T. Sherman.. 

George H. Thomas 

Ulysses S. Grant 

Robert E. Lee 

Philip H. Sheridan 

Joseph Hooker 

Lovell H. Rousseau..., 

Don Carlos Buell 

William S. Rosecrans , 

Gordon Granger , 

James B. Steedman 

Oliver O. Howard 

John A. Logan 

John W. Geary 



ontixpiece. 
IG 



. 59 

. 90 

. 94 

129 

164 

, 194 

244 

259 

269 

277 

298 

306 

316 




WILLIAM TEO0MSE11 8UERMAN. 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 

OF 

.DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 



CHAPTER I. 

SHERMAN AS A STRATEGIST. 



Of the few really great men who have been developed 
by the late war in this country, and who will leave a 
lasting impression on the minds of the people, William 
Tecumseh Sherman may be regarded as the most original. 
His name has been made more widely prominent, and 
his character more universally popular, than that of any 
other of our heroes ; but it has been less in consequence 
of his brilliant success as a leader than by reason of his 
strongly - marked characteristics of person and mind. 
He is, without doubt, the most original and eccentric, 
though not the most powerful — the most interesting, 
though not the most impressive character developed by 
the rebellion. He is by far our most brilliant general, 
but not by any means the most reliable ; the most fasci- 
nating, but not the most elegant ; the quickest, but not 
the safest ; the first to resolve, but not the most resolute. 
As a man he is always generous, but not uniformly just; 



18 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

afifectionate by nature, but not at all times kind in demon- 
stration ; confiding, and yet suspicious ; obstinate, yet 
vacillating; decided, but not tenacious — a mass of con- 
tradictions so loosely and yet so happily thrown together 
as to produce the most interesting combination imagin- 
able. General Sherman's character has many beauties 
and virtues, but also many glaring defects and faults. 
His picture, as I have seen and studied it, possesses what 
the artists call "great breadth of light and shade," and 
is full of contrasts alternately pleasing and offensive, and 
which, in order to properly analyze the character, should 
be portrayed and described with equal force and impar- 
tiality. He is a character without a parallel among his 
contemporaries, though not without a contrast ; and it is 
for the latter reason that I have chosen his character as 
the one upon which to base, as it were, the following es- 
timates of the characters of his fellow-of&cers of the Unit- 
ed States army, and not because I think, as may be sup- 
posed, that he deserves the first place in the rank of our 
great captains. The war lasted long enough to give the 
leaders, if not their proper places in popular estimation, 
at least their true linear rank in the army. General Sher- 
man may be considered as first among the strategists of 
the war ; General George H. Thomas as first among the 
tacticians ; but Grant, combining the qualities of both 
tactician and strategist, must always be ranked as greatly 
the superior of both Thomas and Sherman. 

General Sherman may be described as a bundle of 
nerves all strung to their greatest tension. ISTo woman 
was ever more painfully nervous ; but there is nothing 
of the woman's weakness in Sherman's restlessness. It 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 19 

is not, as with others, a defect of the organization ; it is 
really Sherman's greatest strength, for from it results the 
brilliancy of conception and design which has character- 
ized his strategic movements, the originality which has 
appeared in his views on political economy and the policy 
of war, and the overwhelming energy which is " his all 
in all," the secret and cause of his great success. From 
his extreme nervousness results the most striking feature 
of his character — a peculiar nervous energy which knows 
no cessation, and is resistless. It is not merely that en- 
ergy and quickness of movement which naturally be- 
longs to nervous organizations, but intensified a hund- 
red fold. At the same time, it is energy without system, 
and oftentimes without judgment, but nevertheless al- 
ways effective. General Sherman is the engine, but he 
is not always the engineer. He furnishes the motive 
power, but he frequently requires some person or thing 
to keep him to the track ; in fact, he requires to be con- 
trolled and directed. He is untiring in his efforts; you 
can never dismay him with the amount or frighten him 
with the dangers of a task; and he hesitates at nothing, 
matters great and small receiving his attention. He is 
no believer in that too common fallacy that labor is a 
wearisome waste of the physical and vital powers ; a pun- 
ishment, not a privilege; and degrading, not elevating. 
Work is necessary to his existence, and hard, earnest 
work at that. Alwaj^s a hard, earnest worker, he de- 
voted, during the continuance of the war, but little time 
to sleep, and that little sleep was never sound. His ac- 
tive mind, I once heard him say to a fellow-officer, de- 
lights in preposterous dreams and impossible fancies, 



20 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

and, waking or sleeping, continues ever active in plan- 
ning and executing. 

A few anecdotes will perhaps better illustrate the na- 
ture of this nervous energy. The most remarkable in- 
stance of this characteristic which I can now recall oc- 
curred at Nashville, Tennessee. When Sherman as- 
sumed command there in March, 1864, the great diffi- 
culty in the way of an advance from Chattanooga upon 
the enemy, then covering Atlanta and the Georgia rail- 
roads, was the lack of provisions at Chattanooga and 
Knoxville. The military agent of the railroads from 
JSTashville to Chattanooga was running through to the 
army at the latter point about ninety car-loads of rations 
per day. This merely served to feed the army then gath- 
ered there ; nothing was accumulating for the spring cam- 
paign. General Sherman demanded the cause of this in- 
sufQcient supply of rations. The agent reported that he 
needed both cars and locomotives, and added it was im- 
possible to obtain them. General Sherman answered that 
nothing was impossible, and immediately began to devise 
means by which to remedy the evil. After a short delib- 
eration, he decided to seize a sufficiency of cars and loco- 
motives in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, and at once went 
to work to do so. In an incredibly short space of time 
he extended the northern terminus of the Louisville and 
Nashville Eailroad through the former city, a distance of 
three miles, to the Ohio River. On the levee, or wharf, he 
built an inclined plane to the water's edge. One of the 
ferry-boats w^hich plied between Louisville and Jefferson- 
ville was seized, and especially prepared by the laying of 
rails across its bow and stern to carrv cars and locomo- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 21 

tives. On the Indiana side of the river he extended the 
Jefferson vi lie Eailroad through that town to the Ohio 
Eiver, and built another indined plane from the bluff 
on which the town is situated down the steep wharf to 
the water's edge. At the same time he ordered the im- 
pressment of the necessary cars and locomotives from the 
various northwestern railroads, taking them off routes as 
far north as Chicago, and rushed them off to Nashville, 
crossing the Ohio by the means he had provided. The 
effect was soon visible. In a month after this movement 
began the railroad agents reported that they were run- 
ning two hundred and seventy cars per day through to 
Chattanooga. By the 20th of April, the day Sherman 
left Nashville to begin his Atlanta campaign, he had ac- 
cumulated at Knoxville eighteen, and at Chattanooga 
thirteen days' rations for his whole army of 120,000 men. 
The energy which inspired the railroad agents was com- 
municated to the quarter-masters located at Nashville, 
and the result was the increase of the laboring force of 
this department from four or five thousand to nearly six- 
teen thousand men. During the progress of this work 
General Sherman required the railroad agents and quar- 
ter-masters to report progress daily. I happened to be 
in his office one morning when assistant quarter-master 
General James L. Donnalson reported a small increase 
in the number of cars forwarded on that day over the 
supply of the day before. General Sherman received 
the announcement with more evidences of gratification 
than he would have shown on hearing of a heavy re-en- 
forcement of his numbers, for at this time he had more 
men than he well knew what to do with. " That's 



22 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

good !" be exclaimed — " that's good, Donnalson ; we'll 
be ready for the start;" and then be hastily resumed his 
seat, and made a rapid calculation of some sort, which he 
showed with much apparent delight to Generals Donnal- 
son and Webster, the latter his chief of staff. He could 
not have been more delighted if he had heard the news 
of a great victory. A moment afterward he turned to 
me to deny, in a very gruff way — he was always gruff to 
newspaper correspondents — my application for a pass 
over the military railroad to Chattanooga. "You see," 
he said, " I have as much as I can do to feed my soldiers,^^ 
with a very ungracious emphasis on the word soldiers. 
As I had Lieutenant General Grant's pass to any point 
and by any route in my pocket, and had only submitted 
the question to General Sherman through deference to 
him as the immediate commander of the department, I 
could afford to smile at the slur conveyed in his em- 
phasis, and turned away enriched with a reminiscence, 
and with increased admiration of the man. 

Some former experience with, or, rather, observation 
of the general, had given me somewhat of the same opin- 
ion of his energy and earnestness. When he first as- 
sumed command at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1861, the 
agents of the New York Associated Press throughout the 
country were employed by the government in transmit- 
ting its cipher or secret messages, and correspondence 
between the various military commanders, by telegraph. 
In consequence of this arrangement, General Sherman 
frequented the ofiice of the Louisville agency, in which I 
was at the time employed. He was always at this office 
during the evening, often remaining until three o'clock 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 23 

in the morning, when the closing of the office would force 
him to retire to his rooms at the hotel. During these 
hours he would pace the floor of the room apparently 
absorbed in thought, and heedless of all that was going 
on around him. He would occasionally sit at the table 
to jot down a memorandum or compose a telegram. He 
would sometimes stop to listen to any remark addressed 
to him by other occupants of the room, but would sel- 
dom reply, even though the remark had been a direct 
question, and would appear and act as if the interruption 
had but momentarily disturbed his train of thought. 

In July, 1864, while besieging the enemy's position at 
Kenesaw Mountain, an incident occurred which may be 
given as illustrative of Sherman's energy. When the 
campaign opened he had published an order informing 
the army, in terms which were laughed at at the time as 
rather bombastic and slightly egotistical, that " the com- 
manding general intended making the campaign without 
a tent," and during the greater part of the march his 
head-quarters actually consisted of nothing more than a 
tent-fly for the use of his adjutant general. He generally 
slept under a tree during dry weather, and in very wet 
weather in any convenient house. When the army was 
concentrated in the gorge of Snake Creek Gap, in which 
there was not a house of any character. General Logan 
" raised the laugh" on Sherman by sending him a t'ent 
to protect him from the rain, and which, owing to the 
terrible state of the weather, Sherman was compelled to 
use. But the greater part of the campaign was actually 
passed by Sherman without any other quarters than I 
have described as for the convenience of his adjutant 



24 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

general. Early one morning a regiment of troops passed 
his bivouac near Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia, and saw 
him lying under a tree near the roadside. One of the 
men, not knowing the general, and supposing him, from 
his jaded, weary, and generally dilapidated appearance, to 
be-drunk, remarked aloud, "That is the way we are com- 
manded, ofacered by drunken generals." Sherman heard 
the remark and instantly arose. " Not drunk, my boy," 
he said good-humoredly, "but I was up all night look- 
ing after your rations, and am very tired and sleepy." 
He soon after broke up head -quarters, and, passing the 
same regiment on the march, was received with loud and 

hearty cheers. 

He makes his subordinates work, too, with the same 
zeal. When the rebels, in evacuating Resaca, succeeded 
in burning the railroad bridge over the Oostenaula Eiver, 
he turned to Colonel Wright, his engineer in charge of 
railroads, and asked him how long it would take him to 
replace that bridge. Colonel Wright replied after a 
short calculation, during which Sherman showed his mv 
patience at the delay in the answer, that he could rebuild 
it in four days. 

" Sir," exclaimed the general, hastily, " I give you 
forty-eight hours, or a position in the front ranks." 
The bridge was forthcoming at the proper time. 
This nervousness of Sherman's organization has natu- 
rally produced a peculiar restlessness of manner and ad- 
mirable vigor of expression. He talks with great rapid- 
ity, often in his haste minghng his sentences in a most 
surprising manner, and accompanying his conversation 
by strange, quick, and ungraceful gestures, the most com- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 25 

mon of which is the knocking of the ashes from his cigar 
with the little finger of his left hand, frequently knock- 
ing at it until ashes and light too are gone. 

In a conversation of importance, and particularly on a 
battle-field, he seldom gives a person time to finish his 
remarks or reports. He replies as soon as he has heard 
enough to convey the idea, never waiting its elaboration. 
In giving his instructions and orders, he will take a per- 
son by the shoulder and push him off as he talks, fol- 
lowing him to the door, all the time talking and urging 
him away. His quick, restless manner almost invariably 
results in the confusion of the person whom he is thus 
instructing, but Sherman himself never gets confused. 
At the same time, he never gets composed. Under all cir- 
cumstances, he is thus restlessly, never timidly nervous. 
In danger the restlessness is not so visible, and hence it 
is apparent that there is nothing of timidity in it. On 
the battle-field where he commands Sherman's nervous 
manner is toned down. He grates his teeth, and his lips 
are closed more firmly, giving an expression of greater 
determination to his countenance. His eyes are some- 
what closed, as if endeavoring to see the furthermost 
limits of the battle-field, and, as it were, peer into the 
future and see the result. His cigar is always kept firm- 
ly between his lips, but he suffers its fire occasionally to 
die out. He is less restless of body ; his arms are more 
confined to their proper limits ; and he is content to stay 
in one spot. He talks less at such moments than at 
calmer ones. On light occasions, however, he is invaria- 
bly ill at ease. His fingers nervously twitch his red 
whiskers — his coat buttons — play a tattoo on his table or 

B 



26 PEESONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

oliai]', or run through his hair. One moment his legs arc 
crossed, and the next both are on the floor. He sits a 
moment, and then rises and paces the floor. He onust 
talk, quick, sharp, and yet not harshly, all the time mak- 
ing his odd gestures, which, no less than the intonation 
of his voice, serve to emphasize his language. He can 
not bear a clog upon his thoughts nor an interruption to 
his language. He admits of no opposition. He over- 
rides every thing. He never hesitates at interrupting 
any one, but can not bear to be interrupted himself. He 
is very well aware, and candidly admits that his temper 
is uncommonly bad, and, what is worse, he makes no at- 
tempt to control or correct it. In speaking of the late 
General McPherson, of the Arm}' of Tennessee, he once 
remarked, "He is as good an officer as I am — is younger, 
and has a better temper." Grant, once speaking of Sher- 
man's peevishness, said, " Sherman is impetuous and 
faulty, but he sees his faults as soon as any man." 
The fact is, if Sherman's faults alone could be given to 
another, thc}^ would serve to distinguish him from the 
common herd. 

The idea generally prevails that commanding generals 
are very didactic on the battle-field, and give their or- 
ders in precise language and stentorian voice. A little 
familiarity with actual war will soon dispel this false im- 
pression, particularly if you meet Sherman on the bat- 
tle-field, for there is less of dignity, display, and grandil- 
oquence in him than any other general whom I have 
met during the war. At the battle of Chattanooga he 
gave his orders for the advance of his troops against the 
enemy's strongly fortified position to his brother in law, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 27 

General Hugh Ewing, in the words uttered between two 
puffs at a bad cigar : "I guess, Ewing, if jou are ready, you 
may as well go ahead." Ewing asked a few questions 
in regard to retaining the echelon formation of his com- 
mand as then marshaled for the advance. Sherman re- 
plied, "I want you to keep the left well toward the river 
(the Chickamauga), and keep up the formation four hund- 
red yards distance, until you get to the foot of the hill." 

"And shall we keep it after that?" asked Ewing. 

" Oh, you may go up the hill as you like," said Sher- 
man ; and then he added, soUo voce, with a smile and a 
wink to his aid, and General Ewing's brother, Charley 
Ewing, who stood near by, " if you can." As General 
Ewing was mounting his horse and about to leave, Sher- 
man called out to him, 

"I say, Ewing, don't call for help until you actually 
need it." General Frank Blair, and others of the Arm}' 
of the Tennessee who were standing near Sherman, 
laughed at this in such a manner as left the impression 
on the minds of others, as well as myself, that on some 
former occasion General Ewing had called for help be- 
fore General Sherman thought that he really needed it. 

It is recorded of Sherman that, on witnessing from the 
top of a rice-mill on the Ogeechee Eiver the capture of 
Fort McAllister by General Hazen's forces, and the suc- 
cessful termination by that capture of the " march to the 
sea," he exclaimed, imitating the voice of a negro, " Dis 
chile don't sleep dis night," and hurried off to meet Gen- 
eral Foster and complete the junction of the two armies. 

His nervousness is not less perceptible in his M'ritings 
than in his conversation and manners. Ilis writings lack 



28 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

in elegance, but not in force. Some of Lis letters, re- 
markable for absence of grace and presence of vigoi-, are 
already accepted as among the model documents of tbe 
\Yar, not only as to style, but as to argument. His 
speecbes, letters, and orders are seldom more than skele- 
tons, framed of sbarp, pointed, but disjointed sentences, 
from which the ideas to be conveyed protrude so promi- 
nently as to be comprehensible when the sentence is but 
half conve^'cd. Ills ideas are never elaborated in his let- 
ters, though given more fully than in his conversations, 
but 3-ou never have to finish the sentence to discover 
its meaning. There are several specimens which every 
reader will naturally think of in this connection. His 
letter to the rebel General Hood on the proposed depop- 
ulation of Atlanta is a curious document, an impromptu 
reply, thrown off-hand from his pen, and it reads as if it 
were Sherman talking. He begins this letter by ac- 
knowledging the receipt of a communication at the hands 
of " Messrs. Bull and (vr?y." The bearers, who were desig- 
nated by this undignified title, were members of the Com- 
mon Council of Atlanta, for whom Sherman does not 
appear to have entertained the most profound respect. 
The letter ends b}'- advising Hood to tell his tale of op- 
pression " to the marines," as he (Sherman) is not to be 
imposed upon. In the same correspondence he indicates 
his action in depopulating Atlanta, and gives his peculiar 
"theory of suppression." Sherman's whole thcor}', in 
which, by the way, he has been consistent from the first, 
is embraced in the proposition to "fight the devil with 
fire." He was for vigorous war all the time — hard blows 
at the organized armies, frequent and oft repeated. He 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 29 

has none of the elements of Fabian in him. He writes in 
defense of the action at Atlanta alluded to: "We must 
have peace, not only in Atlanta, but in all America. To 
secure this, we must stop the war that now desolates our 
once happy and favored country. To stop war, we must 
defeat the rebel armies that are arrayed against the laws 
and Constitution, which all must respect and obey. To 
defeat these armies, we must prepare the way to reach 
them in their recesses provided with the arms and in- 
struments which enable ns to accomplish our purpose." 
His expression in the same letter, " War is cruelty — you 
can not refine it," is a sharp, terse rendition of an undis- 
puted truth, to the illustration of which whole chapters 
have been less successfully devoted by more distinguish- 
ed writers. 

While endeavoring to fill up his depots at Chattanooga 
and Knoxville preparatory to the campaign against At- 
lanta, Sherman was asked by members of the United 
States Christian Commission for transportation for their 
delegates, books, tracts, etc., for the arm3^ His reply is 
very characteristic of the man : " Certainly not," he 
wrote ; " crackers and oats are more necessary to my 
army than any moral or religious agency." As this in- 
cident shows, Sherman is not a very firm believer in the 
utility of Christian or Sanitar}'- Commissions, or aid socie- 
ties generally. He thinks female nurses about a hospital 
or an army a great nuisance. He once alluded con- 
temptuously to the efforts of a large number of ladies at 
Louisville, Kentucky, to send clothing, lint, sweetmeats, 
etc., to his troops, but was induced, in lieu of discoura- 
ging their efforts, to take steps to properly direct them. 



30 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

He met the ladies by agreement in one of the public 
halls at Louisville, now known as Wood's Theatre, and 
made an address to them. He went among the lambs 
with all the boldness and dignity of a lion ; but the 
rouirh, uncouth manner of him who had frowned on 
thousands of men melted in the presence of a few hund- 
red ladies. They found that, though " he was no orator 
as Brutus is," he could talk very tenderly of the soldier's 
wants, very graphically of the soldier's life and sutfe rings, 
and very gallantly of woman and her divine mission of 
soothing and comforting. 

Daring the campaign of Atlanta communication with 
the rear was very much obstructed, the news correspond- 
ents found many difficulties in forwarding information, 
and telegrams to the press seldom reached New York. 
During the movement around Atlanta Sherman was ap- 
plied to directly by the news agent at Louisville for the 
details of the movement. In reply the general tele- 
graphed, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won ;" following up 
the expression, which has already passed into song, with 
a brief and graphic report of the flank movement around 
Atlanta and the battle of Jonesborough. This report is 
one of the most admirable narratives I remember to have 
ever read, and at the time of its publication I wrote for 
the Herald, of which I was then a correspondent, a long 
criticism of it. The letter never appeared, however, for 
the reason that I endeavored to show that, successful as 
he had been, Sherman had mistaken his vocation as a 
general, and ought to have been a war correspondent I 
suppose Sherman would have been mortally oflended at 
such language, particularly as he affected to hold eorre- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 31 

gpondents and editors in contempt; but undoubtedly be 
would have been invaluable to the New York Ileiald 
or London Times in such a capacity, and could have 
made more money, if not more reputation, in that ca- 
pacity than as a major general. He has lately declared 
that he does not believe he will ever have occasion to 
lead men again, and I advise him by all means to go into 
the newspaper business. Any of the principal papers 
of New York will be glad to give him double the pay 
'of a major general to act iu the capacity of war corre- 
spondent. 

Until Sherman had developed his practicability, this pe- 
culiarity of expression and manner were accepted as evi- 
dences of a badly-balanced mind. It will be remembered 
that in his early career a I'eport was widely circulated to 
the effect that he was a lunatic ; but the origin of this sto- 
ry, if properly stated, will redound to his credit, as evincing 
admirable foresight and sagacity. The true origin of this 
report is as follows : Sherman succeeded General Robert 
Andei-son in command of the Department of the Ohio on 
October 13, 1861. Up to that time about ten thousand 
United States troops had been pushed into Kentucky. 
The Western governors were under a promise to send as 
many more, but were slow in doing so. General A. Sid- 
ney Johnston, the rebel commander at Bowling Green, 
was endeavoring to create the impression that he had 
about seventy-five thousand men, when he really had ^ 
only about twenty-eight thousand. In this he succeeded 
so flir as to cause it to be supposed that his force largely 
exceeded Sherman's. Sherman urged upon the govern- 
ment the rapid re-enforcement of his army, but with lit- 



32 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

tie effect. The troops did not come, for the reason that 
the government did not credit the statements of the peril- 
ous condition of Sherman's array. So repeated and ur- 
gent were Sherman's demands for re-enforcements, that 
at last the Secretary of War, Mr. Cameron, visited Louis- 
ville in order to look into the situation of affairs. An in- 
terview took place at the Gait House at Louisville, Sher- 
man, Cameron, and Adjutant General Thomas being pres- 
ent. Sherman briefly explained the situation of affairs, 
stated his own force and that of the enemy, and argued 
that re-enforcements were necessary to hold Kentucky, 
to say nothing of an advance. " My forces are too small 
for an advance," he said — " too small to hold the import- 
ant positions in the state against an advance of the ene- 
my, and altogether too large to be sacrificed in detail." 
On being asked how many men were .required to drive 
the enemy out of the state, he answered, without hesita- 
tion, "Two hundred thousand." The answer was a sur- 
prise to the two officers, which they did not attempt to 
conceal. They even ridiculed the idea, and laughed at 
the calculation. It was declared impossible to furnish 
the number of men named. Sherman then argued that 
the positions in Kentucky ought to be abandoned, and 
the army no longer endangered by being scattered. This 
was treated more seriously, and vigorously opposed by 
Cameron and Thomas. They declared the abandonment 
of Kentucky was a step to which they could not consent. 
Subsequently they broached a plan which had been de- 
vised for dividing the Department and Army of the 
Ohio into two; one column to operate under Mitchell 
from Cincinnati as a base against Knoxville, and the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 33 

Other from Louisville against Nashville. To this Sher- 
man was strongly opposed. Satisfied by the persistence 
of Cameron on this point that the government was not 
disposed to second his views of conducting the affairs of 
the Department, Sherman asked to be relieved and or- 
dered to duty in the field. Cameron gladly acquiesced 
in his wishes, and he was relieved by Buell, November 
30, 1861. 

On the same evening of the famous interview between 
Cameron and Sherman, the latter paid his customary visit 
to the Associated Press-rooms at Louisville. Here, while 
still in a bad humor over the result of the interview, he 
was approached by a man who introduced himself as 
an attache of a New York paper, and asked permis- 
sion to pass through the lines to the South in the capac- 
ity of a correspondent. Sherman replied that he could 
not pass. The correspondent, with unwarrantable im- 
pertinence, replied that Secretary Cameron was in the 
city, and he would get a pass from him. Sherman at 
once ordered him out of his department, telling him that 
he would give him two hours to make his escape ; if 
found in his lines after that hour he " would hang him 
as a spy." The fellow left the city immediately, and on 
reaching Cincinnati very freely expressed his opinion 
that the general was crazy. A paper published in that 
city, on learning the story of the interview between 
Cameron and Sherman, which soon became public, em- 
ployed the fellow to write up the report which was thus 
first circulated of Sherman's lunacy. His opinion that 
two hundred thousand men were required to clear Ken- 

B2 



3-i PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

tucky of rebels was quoted as proof of it by this man, and 
thus the story came into existence. 

Subsequent events revealed the fact that Sherman did 
not much exaggerate the force necessary to carry on the 
war in the central zone of the field of military operations. 
Although we have never had a single army numbering 
two hundred thousand men in the AYest, much larger ar- 
mies have been necessary to the accomplishment of the 
campaign of the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers than 
any person other than Sherman thus early in the war 
imagined. The army of Grant at Fort Donelson and 
Shiloh, combined with that of Buell, was not over eigh- 
ty thousand men. That of Ilallcck before Corinth num- 
bered exactly one hundred and two thousand. Sherman 
left Chattanooga in May, 186-i, with one hundred and 
twenty thousand men, the largest army ever gathered in 
one body in the West. At the same time, he had under 
his command at different points on the Mississippi Eiver 
and in Kentucky an additional force of about fifty thou- 
sand, while the forces operating under other command- 
ers in the West would, if added to his, make a grand to- 
tal of two hundred and fifty thousand men operating on 
the Mississippi River, ever}'- one of whom was necessary 
to the conquest and retention of the Mississippi Val- 
ley. 

Sherman may have been at one time crazy, but his 
madness, like Hamlet's, certainly had marvelous method 
in it. Such lunatics as he have existed in all ages, and 
have, when as successful as himself, been designated by 
the distinctive title of "genius," in contradistinction to 
men of medium abilities. Not only Shakspeare, but Dry- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 35 

don, seems to have encountered sucli madness as Sher- 
man's, and to have appreciated the truth that 

" Groat wits arc sure to madness near allied, 
And thin partitions do their bounds divide." 

Doubtless the same author had such a genius or madman 
as Sherman in his mind when he described one of his 
characters as 

" A fiery soul, which, working out its way, 
Fretted the pigmy body to decay." 

The peculiar formation of Sherman's head shows his 
great development of brain. His forehead is broad, high, 
and full, while the lower half of his face and head arc of 
very diminutive proportions. In a person of less phys- 
ical strength and vitality, this great preponderance of the 
mental over the physical powers would have produced 
perhaps actual lunacy. The head of Sherman is of the 
shape peculiar to lunatics predisposed to fanciful concep- 
tions. There is too much brain, and in Sherman it is 
balanced and regulated only by his great physical devel- 
opment. Sherman's brain, combined wntli bad health, 
would have produced lunacy ; his brain and sinewy 
strength combined produced his peculiar mental and 
physical nervousness. Had he been a sedentary student 
instead of an active soldier, the last line of Dry den's poem 
might also have applied to him, and we should know of 
him only as an "o'er informed tenement of clay."* 

When this report of his lunacy was first circulated, 
Sherman was much chagrined at it, and often referred to 

* ** A fiery soul, which, working out its way, 

Fretted the pigmy body to decay, 
And o'er inforniod the tenement of clay." 



36 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

it iu bitter terms. Time and success have enabled him 
to frown it down, and justitied him in laughing at it. He 
once laughingly referred to this report about himself, and 
the rumor which simultaneously prevailed regarding 
Grant's drunkenness during the battle of Shiloh as illus- 
trative of the friendship existing between them. " You 
see," he said to a gentleman, "Grant stood by me when 
I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk." 

During the siege of Corinth he commanded the right 
wing of Thomas's corps, while T. W. Sherman, of Port 
Royal memory, commanded the left. The latter was very 
unpopular with his division on account of a painfully 
nervous manner and fretful disposition, and the officers 
of the command discussed him critically w'ith great free- 
dom, many condemning his manner as offensive. One 
day General W. T. Sherman W'as visiting General Steed- 
man — then a brio-ade commander in T. W. Sherman's di- 

O 

vision — and the latter's name was brought up, Steedman 
giving a very ludicrous account of Sherman's conduct. 

" Oh !" said "William Tecumseh, " this is the crazy 
Sherman, is it ?" 

Great difficulty was found during the operations be- 
fore Corinth in distinguishing the two Shermans. The 
soldiers solved the problem by giving each Sherman a 
nickname. T. W. Sherman was called " Port Royal Sher- 
man," in allusion to his services in South Carolina, while 
W. T. Sherman was known by the somewhat inappro- 
priate title of " Steady-old-nerves," in contradistinction 
to the other, who, as before stated, was more timidly 
nervous. Mr. Lincoln, with some recollection of this co- 
incidence of names on his mind, asked General Grant, on 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 37 

being introduced to General Sherman, if he was W. T. 
or T. W., and laughed with boyish glee at the "joke on 
Sherman." 

As another natural result of Sherman's nervous energy, 
he has acquired the habit of decision in the most perfect 
degree, and his peculiar organization has tended to make 
him practical as well as petulant. He never seems to 
reason, but decides by intuition, and, in this respect, has 
something of the mental as well as bodily peculiarities of 
the gentler sex, who are said to decide intuitively. But 
Sherman is by no means a woman — he would have been 
a shrew had he been — and possesses not one particle of 
the sex's beauty or gentleness. Sherman jumps at con- 
clusions with tremendous logical springs; and, though 
his decisions are not always final, they are in effect so, 
for, if he is forced to retire an inch, his next jump will 
probably carry him forward an ell. Facts are the only 
argument which prevail with him, and the best argu- 
ments of wise men are wasted in endeavoring to convince 
him without undeniable facts at hand. Obstinate, and 
vain, and opinionated as he is, and indisposed as he may 
be to listen to or heed the arguments of equals or inferi- 
ors, he never hesitates to sink all opposition before the 
orders of his superiors, and pay the strictest deference to 
their views when expressed authoritatively. 

I have before said this nervousness of mental and bod- 
ily organization was the main-spring of Sherman's char- 
acter. From it result not only his virtues, but his faults, 
and as man and commander he has many. He is as pet- 
ulant as a dyspeptic ; excessively gruff, and unreasonably 
passionate. Ilis petulance does not, however, prevent 



38 PERSONAL RE]C0LLECTI0NS OF 

his being pleasant when he is disposed; his gruffness 
does not destroy all his generosity, and his passionate 
moods are usually followed by penitence. His fits of 
passion are frequent but not persistent, and, though vio- 
lent, are soon appeased. 

His gruffness often amounts to positive rudeness. 
While in command at Louisville in 1861, the wife of the 
rebel commander Ingraham passed through the city en 
route to the South. The lady, who was rebelliously in- 
clined, pleaded consumption as her excuse for wishing to 
inhale the Southern air. Sherman gruffly advised her 
to " shut herself up in a room and keep up a good fire — 
it would do her just as much good." He often replies in 
this petulant tone to both sexes, particularly if the per- 
son addressed has no business of importance. 

He once took great offense at having his manners, and 
particularly this habit of gruffness, compared to the man- 
ners of a Pawnee Indian, and expressed his contempt for 
the author of the slur in a public manner. He was much 
chagrined shortly after to find that the correspondent 
who had been guilty of the offensive comparison had 
heard of his contemptuous criticism, and had amended it 
by publicly apologizing to the whole race of Pawnees! 

During the battle of Bull Run, where General Sherman 
commanded a brigade, he was approached by a civilian, 
who, seeing him make some observations without the aid 
of a field-glass, proffered him the use of his own. Sher- 
man turned to the gentleman and gruffly demanded, 

" Who are you, sir?" 

"My name is Owen Lovejoy, and I am a member of 
Congress." 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 39 

" What are you doing here? Get out of my lines, sir 
— get out of my lines." 

Nothing satisfied Sherman but the immediate retreat 
of the member of Congress to the rear. 

I have heard that Sherman's bad temper was the cause 
of his leaving his chosen profession of the law. After 
resigning his commission in the army in 1853, he be- 
came, after several changes, a consulting lawyer in the 
firm of his brothers-in-law, the Ewings, at Leavenworth, 
Kansas. He had entered into the copartnership with 
the distinct understanding that he was not to be called 
upon to plead in the courts ; for, though possessing a thor- 
ough knowledge of legal principles, a clear, logical per- 
ception of the equity involved in all cases, and though 
perfectly aufaii in the authorities, he had no confidence 
in his oratorical powers. He was not then the orator he 
has latterly become, and utterly refused to take any part 
in legal debate or pleadings. One day a case came up 
in the Probate Court of Kansas requiring immediate at- 
tention. Tom and Hugh Ewing were busy ; McCook 
was absent, and Sherman was forced, nolens volens, to go 
into court. He carefully mapped out his course until it 
looked like plain sailing ; laid down his plan of proce- 
dure, as he used subsequently to do his plans of marches ; 
but he was destined to be driven from his chosen route, 
not by a Joe Johnston or "foeman worthy of his steel," 
but by a contemptible, pettifogging lawyer, with more 
shrewdness than honesty, and more respect for the end 
to be attained than the means to be used. In the debate 
which the trial involved, Sherman lost his temper, and, 
consequently, his case. He returned to his office in a 



40 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

towering rage, dissolved the partnership with his broth- 
ers-in-law, and, without farther hesitation, accepted the 
presidency of the Louisiana Military Academy, the prof- 
fer of which he had received a day or two before. 

General Sherman's violent temper greatly endangered 
his reputation toward the close of the war, and he came 
near sacrificing, in an evil hour of passion, all that he 
had won before. His passion was to him as the unar- 
mored heel was to Achilles, and the vulnerable point of 
his character came near costing him even more dearly 
than did the vulnerable part of the Grecian warrior's 
body. His diplomatic feat with Joe Johnston was gen- 
erally denounced as a blunder, but it was not the blun- 
der which came near costing him so dearly. That piece 
of diplomacy took the shape of a blunder in consequence 
of the unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances and dis- 
asters which occurred simultaneously with it. Had Mr. 
Lincoln lived. General Sherman would to-day have borne 
a brilliant reputation as a diplomatist, and his agreement 
with Johnston would have been at once, as it was eventu- 
ally, accepted as the basis for the political reconstruction 
of the country. That agreement was repudiated by the 
people and President Johnson in an hour of frenzied 
passion, though the latter has since modeled his plan 
upon it; and Sherman lost his chance for becoming a 
great diplomatist. But he, and he only, was to blame for 
the grave blunder which immediately afterward nearly 
cost him his fame and position as a soldier. Sullen at 
the repudiation of his agreement with Johnston, angry 
at the interference of General Halleck with the co-opera- 
tive movements of himself and Sheridan, and furious at 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 41 

the countermanding of Ws orders to his subordinates / 
bj the Secretary of War, Sherman forgot himself, and? 
marched to Washington with his army, breathing ven- ' 
geance upon Halleck, and hate and contempt for Stan- 
ton. Fortunately for Sherman, history will not record 
the scene. History never yet recorded — no nation ever 
before safely witnessed such a spectacle as that of a vic- 
torious general, at the head of eighty thousand men de- 
voted to him and jealous of his fame as a part of their 
own, marching to the capital of the country with threats 
against his military superiors breathing from his lips and 
flowing from his pen. For days Sherman raved around 
Washington, expressing his contempt for Halleck and 
Stanton in his strongest terms, and denouncing them 
as "mere non-combatants" whom he despised. More 
than this, he wrote to his friends, and through them to 
the public, comparing Stanton and Halleck to "cow- 
ardly Falstaffs," seeking to win applause and honor for 
the deeds he had done ; accusing the Secretary of War 
of suppressing his reports, and endeavoring to slander 
him before the American public in official bulletins. For 
days his army roamed the streets of the capital with the 
same freedom with which they had roam^ed through the 
fields of Georgia and the swamps of the Carolinas, and 
no man dared to raise his voice in condemnation of their 
leader, or approval of the superiors who had opposed 
him. No republic ever before survived such a condition 
of affiiirs; this republic never was in such danger before, 
and yet the danger was hardly suspected. The spectacle 
is one which Sherman will ever regret, but every true 
American, and every lover of republican liberty, can 



•12 PERSONAL EECOLLECTIONS OF 

}ioint to it with pride as a remarkable illustration of the 
stability of rcpubliean institutions. Powerful' as Sher- 
man was against Stanton and Halleck (and a word from 
him would have destroyed them), he was powerless 
against the nation, and not one man of his mighty host 
would have followed him in an attempt upon its exist- 
enee. It is, perhaps, a still greater proof of the power of 
republican principles that, in the midst of his furious 
rage, such a thought as the injury of the government 
never for a passing second entered the brain of the leader 
of these men. He has reason to be thankful that the na- 
tion was as generous as he was honest; and that the peo- 
ple made no record against him for the offense against 
discipline which in any other country would have cost 
him not merely his position, but his reputation, and in 
any other army his head. At the same time, the nation 
must and will cherish the honest man who, thus tried 
and tempted, never for a single second forgot his alle- 
giance to the principles for which he had fought and the 
country w^hich he had served. 

General Sherman's reputation as a soldier must rest 
entirely on his strategic abilities. His successes were 
those of strategy only — not of tactics. His faults as a 
commander are glaring as his faults of character. As an 
organizer of armies for the field, and as a tactician in 
battle, he was an utter fiiilure. He never commanded a 
well -organized army whose discipline did not become 
relax under his administration, and he was never com- 
mander-in-chief in any battle which was not a failure. 
Instead of being an organizer, Sherman was a disorgan- 
izer; he was always chief among the "Bummers" which 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 43 

he made his soldiers, and by which name they were 
eventually designated. His whole career shows him to 
have been solely a strategist, absolutely incapacitated by 
mental organization for disciplining and fighting an arm}^ 
His attempt to organize the army in Kentucky in 1861 
was a most egregious failure. He gave it up in despair 
to General Buell, who, on assuming command, found it a 
mob without head or front, or appropriate parts. Buell, 
in contradistinction to Sherman, was great as an organizer 
and disciplinarian, and he soon made a fine army out of 
Sherman's unorganized mob. General Sherman shortly 
afterward went into the battle of Shiloh with a division 
of troops who were also unorganized, and only escaped an- 
nihilation by the timely appearance of Buell and the now 
thoroughly disciplined troops which Sherman had orig- 
inally commanded. When Buell's troops on this occa- 
sion made their appearance on the small plateau which 
is called Pittsburg Landing, the great numbers of Sher- 
man's demoralized new recruits who were there huddled 
together welcomed them as veterans. "Buell! Buell!" 
was their cry; "here come Buell's veterans." One can 
not but smile when he remembers that the men thus 
hailed as veterans had never been engaged in even so 
much as a skirmish. Their conduct in the desperate 
battle which followed on the day after their arrival 
proved them to be worthy of the name. One year's 
thorough discipline had made them veterans without 
having fought a battle. 

Throughout Sherman's career his troops were noted \ 
for their lack of discipline. When he assumed command 
of the Army of Tennessee on the promotion of General j 



44 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Grant in 1863, he found it one of the best disciplined 
armies in the country, though not the best provided. I 
doubt if there was ever a division, brigade, or even* regi- 
mental drill in that army after Sherman took command. 
He subsequently became indirectly in command of the 
Army of the Cumberland, which, though directly com- 
manded by that strict disciplinarian. General George H. 
Thomas, soon felt the effect of Sherman's presence and 
control, and became very relaxed in discipline. Subse- 
quently, on the march to the sea and through the Caro- 
linas under Sherman, the discipline of the formerly mod- 
el armies became still more relaxed, and gradually the 
whole arm}^ became regular " Bummers," a term which 
is not generally understood in its proper sense of re- 
proach. The people to this day only half know what a 
" bummer" is, from having a general idea of the charac- 
ter of Sherman as the chief of bummers. The veil of 
romance which surrounded Sherman's army has never 
been entirely torn away. Its pilgrimages are still ro- 
mances. It has always been viewed in that dim and 
distant perspective which adds a charm to beauty, and 
hides internal troubles and blemishes, and the evils it 
did and the outrages it committed have never been made 
public. But the friends of Sherman might reasonably 
claim even the want of this special tact for organizing 
and disciplining troops as a virtue. It can not really be 
said to have detracted from Sherman's ability as a sol- 
dier. "What was lost thereby to the army in discipline 
was made np in mobility. If its morale was bad, the 
marching was good, and that satisfied Sherman. If he 
did not teach his soldiers how to fight, he gave them the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 45 

mobility which the execution of his strategic designs 
required of them, and thus the end aimed at was gained, 
and die country was satisfied. Ue merely changed bis 
men from heavy to light infantry. Success justifies all 
means, and thus Sherman became — and justly became — 
a great general without ever having won a battle. 

It is very strong language, I admit, to say that Sher- 
man never won a battle, but considerately so, for if the 
purely tactical operations of General Sherman be critic- 
ally examined, it will be found that they were almost in- 
variably failures. He was the chief in command, the 
central and controlling power, in the battles of Chicka- 
saw Bayou, Kesaca, Kenesaw Mountain, and Jonesboro, 
all of which, with the bare exception of the latter, where 
his ovei'powering ft)rcc and strategic march of the 
night before insured victory, were tactically great fail- 
ures. The failure of the co-operative movements of 
Grant at Chickasaw Bayou doubtless caused Sherman's 
defeat at that point — at least it has served to explain 
it away, and stands as the excuse for it; but all will 
remember how signal a failure it was. The battle of 
Kesaca was a still greater failure. Doubt, delay, and 
inaction lost Sherman the great advantage which his 
strategic march through Snake Creek Gap had given 
him in placing him in the rear of the enemy's position, 
and he ought to have captured every gun and wagon of 
the enemy, and dispersed the army which subsequently 
retarded his advance in Atlanta; but the battle was be- 
gun too late and pushed too feebly. Sherman's strategy 
had at one time rendered a battle unnecessary, and it was 
forced on him through another's indecision (I believe 



46 PEESOXAL KECOLLECTIOXS OF 

that General !N[eriiei'sou admitted before his deatb tLat 
that fault was his), but certainly it was the lault of Sher- 
man that the battle, when fought, ^Yas indecisive. Every 
body will remember the Kenesaw Mountain battle and 
its useless sacritices, and every body will remember, too, 
the candor with which Sherman wrote that it was a fail- 
ure, and that the fault was his. All the minor engage- 
ments of his great campaign against Atlanta were either 
positive defeats or negative advantages, and yet that 
wonderful campaign was won, and all the advantages 
which could have under any circumstances accrued from 
it were g-ained to us without the losses which a great bat- 
tle would have caused. The strategic marches executed 
during that campaign are now chaptere in the theory 
and history of war, and the close student of the art will 
see more to admire in the passage of the Chattahoochee 
Eiver, the march through the gorge of Snake Creek Gap, 
and across the Alatooua Mountains, and the flank move- 
ments around Kenesaw and Atlanta, than in the more 
dashing but less skillful marches through Georgia and 
the Carolinas. The campaign of Atlanta was made in 
the f^Tce of the enemy commanded by their most skillful 
general, while during the other and more famous marches 
no enemy was met. The campaign through Georgia was 
merely extensive; that against Atlanta was both grand 
in conception and ditBcult in execution. One was ac- 
complished at a stride, the other step by step. The cam- 
paign of Atlanta g-ave rise not only to a new system of 
warfare, but even to a new system of tactics. Keyer be- 
foi-e in the history of war had an army \>een known to 
be constantly under lire for one hundi-ed consecutive 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 47 

days. Men whom three years of service had made vet- 
erans learned during that campaign a system of fighting 
tliey had never heard of before. The whole army be- 
came at once from necessity pioneers and sharp-shooters. 
The opposing armies lay so close to each other that 
not only pickets, but whole corps were within musket 
range of each other, and every camp had to be in- 
trenched. As a singular fact, showing the impression 
made on the minds of the men by the changed tactics 
which this campaign rendered necessary, I may mention 
that the soldiers called each other "gophers" and ".bea- 
vers;" and "gopher holes" were more common in the 
armies' track than were camp-fires. It used to be laugh- 
ingly said of the men that, instead of "souring onto,"*.e. 
taking without leave each other's rations, they were in 
tlie habit, during the Atlanta campaign, of purloining 
each other's pick -axes and spades with which to dig 
their " gopher holes" or trenches for their protection 
from the enemy's sharp-shooters. I imagine it is on this 
campaign and its results, rather than on that from At- 
lanta to the sea, and from thence to Goldsboro', that Gen- 
eral Sherman would prefer to rest his reputation in the 
future.* We of to-day study the holiday marches from 

* A more laborious campaign than that of Atlanta was never under- 
lakon, and it is difficult to say which soldier deserves the most credit 
for the movements, Sherman or Joe Johnston. The retreats of the latter 
were not less admirable than the flank marches of the former, and John- 
ston showed as clean heels as Sherman did a fully guarded front. Ilis 
camps were left barren ; Sherman found only Johnston's smoking camp- 
fires, but no spoils left behind him. It was looked upon by the officers 
of Sherman's army as the ."cleanest retreat of the war, "and it is very 
evident now that, had Johnston remained in command, and bc^n allowed 



48 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

a very different stand-point from that whicTi the genera- 
tions, which follow us will view them. When all things 
come to be critically examined and carefully summed 
up, it will be decided and adjudged that the battles 
which made the campaign to the sea and through the 
Carolinas successes were fought on the hills around 
Nashville by General Thomas, not by General Sherman, 
^et they are not without their great merit. Undertaken 
with deliberation and after elaborate preparation, they 
were not wanting in boldness and originality of design, 
but they do not serve to illustrate strategy : it is only the 
logistics which are so admirable. 

A great deal has been said and written about General 
Sherman's dislike for the newspapers and for that class 
of necessary nuisances which were with every army, the 
war correspondents; but it was a dislike that was in a 
great measure affected. All men are egotists. Grant and 
Sherman among the rest, and both like to be well spoken 
of and written about; they would hardly be human if 
they did not. In fact, if Sherman can not find somebody 
to write about him, he does it himself. One of the in- 
stances in which he has complimented himself is destined 
to give every student of the art of war a knowledge of 

to continue his Fabian policy, Sherman could never have made his march 
to the sea, and the capture of Atlanta would have been a Cadmean vic- 
tory to him. Johnston proved himself a very superior soldier —in fact, 
the superior general of the Southern armies. If it could be said of any 
of the rebels, it could be said of Johnston that, in fact, he was 
" The noblest Roman of them all : 

All the conspiraton?, save only he, 

Did that they did in envy of great C'sesar. 

Ho only, iu a generous, honest thoiight, 

And common good to all, made one of them." 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 49 

this weak point of bis character. Shortly after the suc- 
cessful passage of the Chattahoochee Eiver in the face of 
the enemy, an operation which was among the finest 
accomplishments of the campaign of Atlanta, Sherman 
published an address to his troops, in which he said, with 
pardonable egotism, " The crossing of the Chattahoo- 
chee and breaking of the Augusta Road was most hand- 
somely executed by us, and will be studied as an exam- 
ple in the art of war." A still greater piece of egotism 
from his pen is not less amusing. It is that letter in 
which he refers to his having been a scourge to the South, 
and in which he adds, " Think how much better that it 
was I than Ben Butler or some other of that school." 
This, to say the least, must have been pleasant to " Ben" 
and " others 'of that school," if not modest in General 
Sherman. 

This egotism led to an affectation of simplicity in style 
and carelessness in habits which produced a very pleas- 
ant incident at Nashville in 1864. ^Sherman was very 
fond of the theatre, and would go as often as he found 
time. When he first arrived in the " City of Rocks," the 
manager of the " New Nashville Theatre" waited on him 
with the tender of a private box. The general declined 
it, and instead of appearing in a private box, would be 
found very frequently sitting in the pit of the theatre 
surrounded by his "boys in blue," and laughing at the 
comicalities or applauding the "points" with as much 
gusto as any of the audience. This affectation of the re- 
publican in manners gained him more notice than if he 
had sat in a private box, and every body enjoyed seeing 
him there except the manager, who complained that it 

C 



50 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

was injuring his business. No officer dared to sit in a 
private box with Sherman present in the pit, and these 
places became, during Sherman's stay, " a beggarly ac- 
count of empty boxes" indeed. 

I once had a long conversation with General Sherman 
on the subject of the press and war correspondents, from 
which I learned very little more than that he was very 
much disposed to underrate the advantages of the one 
and the abilities of the other, but very willing to accept, 
though with an affected ill grace, the praises of either. 
He declared in that conversation that the government 
could well afford to purchase all the printing-presses in 
the country at the price of diamonds, and then destroy 
them, and that all the war correspondents should be hung 
as spies. Sherman, with all his affected contempt for the 
press, is more indebted to it than any other officer in the 
army. 

From time immemorial — at least from the days of Su- 
warrow and of " Old Fritz" — Frederick the Great — troops 
have always given nicknames to the commanders they 
adored. The veteran soldier is an affectionate creature, 
and he evinces his lovable disposition pretty much as the 
women do, by the use of pet names and expressive ad- 
jectives. The veterans had a slang of their own, as ex- 
pressive to the initiated and as incomprehensible to the 
ignorant as the more systematically arranged jargon of 
the showman, gambler, or peddler. Increasing affection 
for a popular leader was evinced by an increase in the in- 
tensity of the adjective or pronoun applied to the person. 
A popular leader may have at one time been only " Col- 
onel," but as his popularitj^ increased and he won the af- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 51 

fection of his men, he was called " The Colonel," " Our 
Colonel," and " Our Bully Colonel." At the height of 
M'Clellan's popularity his soldiers invariably called him 
" Little Mac." Sheridan was always " Little Phil," John 
A. Logan always " Black Jack," and Thomas has success- 
ively been known as " Old Slow Trot," "Uncle George," 
and " Old Pap," the latter being the superlative form of 
expression. 

Sherman has not entirely escaped "nicknames," though 
he has been more fortunate in this respect than some 
other commanders. In 1861 the Home Guards of Louis- 
ville gave him a name which has never been used by 
any other body of troops. It was under the following 
circumstances: The Home Guard marched under Sher- 
man's leadership from Louisville to meet the invasion of 
Buckner. "While moving to Lebanon Junction the gen- 
eral spoke to the men, telling them of the necessity which 
had arisen for their services, and proposed to muster them 
into the United States service for thirty days. Few of 
them had blankets, none had haversacks, and no tents 
were at the time on hand. The men were really not 
prepared to remain long in the field, and some demurred 
at the length of time mentioned. Sherman grew very 
angry at this, and spoke very harshly, intimating that he 
considered the Home Guards a " paltry set of fellows." 
The men were chagrined at this, and much embittered 
against him, and on the spot voted him " a gruff old 
cock." They soon found, however, that they had to ac- 
cept him as a commander, when one of them remarked, 
" It was a bitter pill." Out of this grew the title of " Old 
Pills," which was at once fastened upon the general. The 



52 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

men consented to be mustered for fifteen days. This put 
Sherman in an excellent humor again, and he promised 
them tents, blankets, etc., immediately. This, in turn, 
put the Guards in a high glee, and one of them suggest- 
ing that " Old Pills" was sugar-coated, the nickname was 
modified, and he was known ever after as " Old Sugar- 
coated Pill." 

Later in the war his troops fixed upon one title of en- 
dearment for Sherman which will doubtless stick to him 
to the last. It expressed no peculiarity, was not prop- 
erly a nickname, but simply an expression of affection. 
lie will always be known to his veterans as "Old Billy." 
Ilis veterans of 1861 and 1862 called him " Old Sher- 
man," and few will forget it who heard General Rous- 
seau's brigade hail him by that title during the battle of 
Shiloh. On the day of that battle, while hotly engaged 
near the log church which gave its name to the field, 
Sherman met a brigade of Bucll's fresh troops moving 
forward to his support, and hastily aske^ whose troops 
the}^ were. General Rousseau, who commanded the bri- 
gade, rode hastily through the line to meet Sherman, who 
had been dismounted for the third time by the fire of 
the enemy, and had one wounded arm in a sling, while 
his face was blackened by the fire of his own artillery. 

"Rousseau's brigade," said that ofiicer — "your old 
troops, General Sherman." 

At the mention of Sherman's name, Rousseau's men, 
who had made their first campaign under Sherman, rec- 
ognized him. "There's old Sherman," ran along their 
lines, and in an instant more there broke above the din 
of the battle three loud ringing cheers for " Old Sher- 



DJSTINGUISHED GENERALS. 63 

man." Sherman took no notice of the cheers at the 
time, but his subsequent report of the battle showed 
that he was not oblivious to the compliment. At the 
moment he simply ordered the brigade forward. It 
was about the time the rebels began falling back, and 
soon the advance thus ordered became a pursuit of the 
foe. 

Sherman is an inveterate smoker. lie smokes, as he( 
docs every thing else, with an energy which it would be 
supposed would deprive him of all the pleasure of smok- 
ing. He is fully as great a smoker as Grant, whose pro- 
pensity in that line is well known, but he is very unlike 
him in his style of smoking. Grant smokes as if ho 
enjoyed his cigar. Sherman smokes as if it were a duty 
to be finished in the shortest imaginable time. Grant 
will smoke lying back in his chair, his body and mind 
evidently in repose, his countenance calm and settled. 
He blows the smoke slowly from his mouth, and builds 
his plans and thoughts in the clouds which are formed 
by it about his head. He smokes his tobacco as the Chi- 
nese do their opium, and with that certain sort of oblivi- 
ous disregard for every thing else which it is said char- 
acterizes the opium smoker. He enjoys his mild Havana 
in quiet dignity, half smoking, half-chewing it. Sherman 
puffs furiously, as if his cigar was of the worst character 
of " penny grabs" and would not " draw." He snatches 
it frequently, and, £»ne might say, furiously, from his 
mouth, brushing the ashes off with his little finger. He 
continually paces the floor while smoking, generally deep 
in thought of important matters, doubtless; but a looker- 
on would imagine that ho was cndcavorinp^ to solve the 



54 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

question of how to draw smoke tliroiigb bis cigar. He 
seldom or never linisbes it, leaving at least one half of it 
a stump. AVbcn bo used to frequent the Associated 
Press-rooms at Louisville in 1861, be would often accu- 
mulate and leave upon tbe agent's table as many as eigbt 
or ten of tbesc stumps, wbicb tbe porter of tbe rooms 
used to call " Sberman's old soldiers." Even until long 
after Anilcrson's assumption of command at Louisville 
tbe agent of tbe New Orleans papers continued sending 
bis telegrams for tbe rebel papers to New Orleans. This 
man was a rabid secessionist, and disliked Sherman ex- 
ceedingly. He used to say of him that be smoked as 
some men whistled — " for want of thought." This is un- 
doubtedly a mistake; for close observers say that, while 
smoking, Sherman is deepest absorbed in thought. 

lie is certain]}^, when smoking, almost totally oblivious 
to what is going on around him. This peculiar absence 
of mind had an excellent illustration in a circumstance 
which occurred at Lebanon Junction, Kentucky, when 
first occupied by Sherman and tbe Home Guards. AVhile 
walking up and down the railroad platform at that place, 
awaiting tbe repair of the telegraph line to Louisville, 
Sherman's cigar gave out, lie immediately took another 
from his pockol, and, approaching the orderly-sergeant 
of the "Marion Zouaves" — one of theIIon\e Guard com- 
panies — asked for a light. The sergeant had only a mo- 
ment before lighted his cigar, and, l^ivking a puff or two 
to improve the fire, he banded it, with a bow, to tbe gen- 
eral. Sherman carefully lighted his weed, took a puff or 
two to assure himself, and, having again lapsed into his 
train of thought, absiraetodl}' threw away the sergeant's 



DISTINGUISHED OENKHALS. 55 

cigar. General Rousseau and several oi]\vA' ofTieors weio 
standing by at the time, and laiigiicd heartily at the inci- 
dent; but Sherman was too deej)ly buried in thought to 
notice the laughtcu- or mishap. Thnje years subsequent- 
ly, at his head-quarters in Nashville, Kousseau endeav- 
ored to recall this occurrence to Sherman's mind. lie 
could not recollect it, and replied, "I was think-ing of 
something else. It won't do to let to-mofrow tnke caro 
of itself. Your good merchant don't think of tlie ships 
that ai'c in, but those that are to come In. '^IMie evil of 
lo-duy is irrcparal^lc. Look aliead to avoid Ijrcakcjrs, 
You can't when your ship is on them. All y(;ii c;ui l,li(;n 
do is to save yourself and retrieve disaster. 1 was think- 
ing of something else when I threw the sergeant's cigar 
away." And then he added, laugliing, " Did I d(; tliut, 
rcaliy?" 

With tlic personal iippearance of General ShcrTiian tlic ' 
public are but lilticj ac(jiiaiut<'d. Vi'.ry (ew full- lenglh 
pictures of him have been made;. Of the nunieicjiis (ti- 
gravings and })hotographs which have been published 
since he became famous very lew arc good likenesses, 
and none convey a proper idea of his general appear- 
ance. The best picture which I have seen is the one 
from which the accompanying engraving is made. The 
outlincis of the features are given with great accuracy, 
and any one familiar with the general's physiognomy 
will pronounce it a faithful likeness, though the position 
in which tlxi subject sat serves to conceal tlie extreme 
Romanism of his nose. There is a scowl on the face, and 
yet the expression is that of Sherman in a good humor. 
He seldom has such a self-satisfied air. A critical ob- 



56 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

server of the picture in question would remark that Sher- 
man has done in this case what he seldom takes time or 
has inclination to do, and has given the artist a special 
sitting. He has " made himself up" for the occasion. If 
the critic were one of Sherman's soldiers, he would notice 
the absence from his lips of the inevitable cigar. The 
coat, it will be observed, is buttoned across the breast, 
and is the chief fault of the engraving, for Sherman sel- 
dom or never buttons his coat either across his breast or 
around his waist. His vest is always buttoned by the 
lower button only, and, fitting close around his waist, 
adds to his appearance of leanness. It is doubtful if at 
this time any one can be found, except the general's tail- 
or, who can tell when his coat was new. He appears to 
have an aversion to new clothes, and has never been seen 
in a complete new suit or heard in creaking boots. It 
may be said that he never conforms to the regulations in 
respect to the color of his suit; for the uniform he gener- 
ally wears has lost its original color, and is of that dusty 
and rusty tinge, and with that lack of gloss which follows 
constant use. One would readily imagine, judging by 
its appearance, that he purchased his uniform second- 
hand. The hat which he generally wears is of the same 
order of foded " regulation," with the crown invariably 
puffed out instead of being pushed in, in the "Burnside 
style." The regulation cord and tassel he does not rec- 
ognize at all. 

With the exception of his eyes, none of the features of 
Sherman's countenance are indicative of his character. 
Altogether he is commonplace in appearance, neither 
excessively handsome nor painfully repulsive. At the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 57 

same time, divest him of his regulations, and in a crowd 
his face would attract attention and afford a study. Ilis 
eyes, conforming to his general character, are as restless 
as his body or mind. They are rather of a dull though 
light color, their restlessness giving them whatever they 
possess of brilliancy and animation. His lips close firm- 
ly and closely, and with the deep lines running from his 
nostrils to cither corner of his mouth, give to the lower 
half of his face an air of decision indicative of his char- 
acter. His hands are long, slender, and tapering, like 
those of a woman, and are in admirable keeping with his 
figure. His short, crisp whiskers, which grow unshaven, 
and which appear to be stunted in growth, are of a din- • 
gy red, or what is commonly called "sandy" color. He 
takes very little care of his whiskers and hair, each hav- 
ing to be content with one careless brushing a day. lie 
has, perhaps, as great a disregard for his personal appear- 
ance as he pretends to have for what others may say or 
think of him. 

C 2 



08 rEUSOKAL KECULLEt'TlU^S OF 



CllAPTER 11. 

THOMAS AS A TACTICIAN. 

While General Shcrnuin was pursuing Hood, when 
that galhint but not very sagacious rebel was making his 
ill-judged and ill-advised but bold march northward, 
leaving Atlanta and our armies in his rear, some ex- 
igency arose which made General Sherman regret the 
absence of General George H. Thomas, who had been 
sent to Nashville. I do not now distinctly remember 
what the exigency was other than that it related to some 
inipoiiant movement — perhaps the movement to the 
sea — but, at any rate, so undecided and troubled was 
Sherman in coming to a decision, that he suddenly broke 
a long silence, during which he had been seriously medi- 
tative, by exclaiming to one of his aids, 

"I wish old Thorn was here ! He's my ofT-wheel-horse, 
and knows how to pull with me, though he don't pull in 
the same way." 

There was never a truer woi\l uttered in jest, and de- 
scribing Thomas as the "match hoi'se" of Sherman is a 
comparison by no means as inaccui'ate as it is rude. In 
the chapter which precedes this I have endeavored to 
show that the distinctive feature of Sherman's character 
is a, certain nervousness of thought and action, inspiring 
a restless and resistless cnei'gy. The best idea of Gen- 




ii:iiKiU'; li. iiiiiM/i 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS, 61 

eral Thomas is obtained by contrasting him with Sher- 
man, and illustrating Sherman as a great strategist, 
Thomas as a great tactician. Sherman is not merely a 
theoretical strategist as Halleck is, as McPherson was, but 
one of great practicability, and an energy which has given 
practical solutions to his strategic problems. Thomas is 
not merely a theoretical tactician, with a thorough knowl- 
edge of the rules, but one who has illustrated the art on 
extensive battle-fields, and always with success. The 
two appear in every respect in contrast, and possess no 
similarities. One may be called a nervous man, and the 
other a man of nerve. Sherman derives his strength 
from the momentum resulting from the rapidity with 
which he moves ; Thomas moves slowly, but with equal- 
ly resistless power, and accomplishes his purposes by 
sheer strength. Sherman is naturally the dashing leader 
of light, flying battalions ; Thomas the director of heav- 
ily-massed columns. He may be called heavy ordnance 
in contradistinction to Sherman, who may be likened to 
a whole battery of light rifle-guns ; or, in the language of 
the prize-ring, Sherman is a light-weight and quick fight- 
er, while Thomas is a heavy, ponderous pugilist, whose ev- 
ery blow is deadly. Sherman's plans are odd, if not oi'ig- 
inal. Though I have heard learned military critics deny 
that they embraced new rules of war, still it can not be 
denied that his campaigns have been out of the general 
order of military exploits. Thomas, on the other hand, 
originates nothing, but most skillfully directs his army 
on well-defined principles of the art. Sherman jumps at 
conclusions; Thomas's mind and body act with equal 
deliberation, his conclusions being arrived at after long 



62 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

and mature reflection. Sherman never takes thought of 
unexpected contingencies or failure. There is always a 
remedy for any failure of a part of Thomas's plans, or 
for the delinquencies of subordinates. Sherman never 
hesitates to answer;. Thomas is slow to reply. One is 
quick and positive ; the other is slow, but equally pos- 
itive. Thomas thinks twice before speaking once ; and 
when he speaks, his sentences are arranged so compact- 
ly, and, as it were, so economically, that they convey his 
idea at once. It is given as advice, but men receive it 
as an order, and obey it implicitly. 

The habits of the two men are radically different. 
Sherman is an innovator on the customs not onl}^ of the 
army, but every phase of social life, and is at least one 
generation ahead of the American people, fast as it im- 
agines itself. Thomas belongs to a past generation, and 
his exceedingly regular habits belong to the "good old 
time." He has been confirmed by long service in the 
habits of camp, and appears never to be satisfied unless 
living as is customary in camps. In September, 1862, 
his division of BuelTs army was encamped at Louisville, 
Kentucky, his quarters being in the outskirts of the city. 
While encamped here, Colonel Joe McKibbon, then a 
member of General Halleck's staff, arrived from Wash- 
ington City and delivered to Thomas an order to relieve 
Buell, and assume command of the Army of the Ohio. 
In order to put himself in communication with the com- 
mander-in-chief, Thomas was compelled to ride into the 
city and take rooms at the hotel nearest the telegraph 
office. He employed the day in communicating with 
General Halleck, urging the retention of Buell, and in 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 63 

declining the pro2DOsed promotion. Late at night he re- 
tired to his bed. But the change from a camp-cot to 
clean feathers was too much for the general. He found 
it impossible to sleep, and at a late hour in the night he 
was compelled to send Captain Jacob Brown, his provost- 
marshal, to his head-quarters for his camp-cot. The re- 
organization of the army, the murder of General Nelson 
by Jeff. C. Davis, and other events occurring about the 
same time, conspired to keep the general a guest or pris- 
oner at the hotel for a week. During all that time he 
slept as usual on his cot, banished the chamber-maids 
from his room, and depended for such duty as they usu- 
ally performed on the old colored body -servant who had 
attended him for many years. 

System and method are absolutely necessary to Thom- 
as's existence, and nothing ruffles or excites him so much 
as innovations on his habits or changes in his customs. 
He discards an old coat with great reluctance ; and dur- 
ing the earlier part of the war, when his promotions came 
to him faster than he could wear out his uniforms, it was 
almost impossible to find him donning the proper dress 
of his rank. He wore the uniform of a colonel for sev- 
eral months after he had been confirmed a brigadier gen- 
eral, and only donned the proper uniform when going 
into battle at Mill Spring. He was confirmed a major 
general in June, 1862, but did not mount the twin stars 
until after the battle of Stone River, fought on the last 
day of the same year, and then they found their way 
to his shoulders only by a trick to which his body-serv- 
ant had been incited by his aids. This methodical and 
systematic feature of his character found an admirable 



6-1 TEKSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

illustratio!! in an incident to wliicli I was a witness dur- 
ing the battle of Cliickamauga. After the rout of the 
principal part of the corps of McCook and Crittenden, 
Thomas was left to fight the entire rebel army with a 
single corps of less than twenty thousand men. The 
enemy, desirous of capturing this force, moved in heavy 
columns on both its flanks. Ilis artillery opened upon 
Thomas's troops from front and both flanks ; but still 
they held their ground until Stecdman, of Granger's 
corps, reached them with rc-cnforcemcnts. I was sitting 
on my horse near General Thomas when General Steed- 
man came up and saluted him. 

" I am very glad to see you, general," said Thomas 
in welcoming him. General Steedman made some in- 
quiries as to how the battle was going, when General 
Thomas, in a vexed manner, replied, 

"The damned scoundrels are fighting without any 
system," 

Stecdman thereupon suggested that he should pay the 
enemy back in his own coin. Thomas followed his sug- 
gestion. As soon as Granger came up with the rest of 
his corps, he assumed the offensive ; and while Bragg 
continued to move on his flanks, he pushed forward 
against the rebel centre, so scattering it by a vigorous 
blow that, fearful of having his army severed in two, the 
rebel abandoned his flank movement in order to restore 
his centre. This delayed the resumption of the battle 
until nearly sunset, and Thomas was enabled to hold his 
position until nightfall covered the retirement to Ross- 
ville Gap. 

Thomas is not easily ruffled. It is diflicult alike to 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 65 

provoke his anger or enlist his enthusiasm. He is by 
no means blind to the gallantry of his men, and never 
fails to notice and appreciate their deeds, but they never 
win from him any other than the coldest words, in the 
coldest, but, at the same time, kindest of commendatory 
tones. He grows really enthusiastic over nothing, though 
occasionally his anger may be aroused. When it is, his 
rage is terrible. During the campaign in Kentucky, in 
pursuit of Bragg in 1862, Thomas was second in com- 
mand of the army UT|der Buell. The new recruits com- 
mitted many depredations upon the loyal Kentuckians. 
While the army was passing a small stream near Bards- 
town, called "Floyd's Fork of Salt Kiver," Thomas was 
approached by a farmer whom he knew to be a good 
Union man, and who made complaint that one of the 
general's staff officers had carried off the only horse left 
on his farm. The general turned black with anger at 
such an accusation against one of his staff officers, and 
demanded to know who and where the offender was. 
The fixrmer pointed to a mounted infantry officer, who 
was attached to one of the regiments and not to tlie gen- 
eral's staffi The general rode up to him and demanded 
to know where he had obtained the horse which he rode. 
The officer replied that he had "impressed" him. The 
general knew the man had no authority to impress horses, 
and, choking with rage, he poured on the devoted head 
of the delinquent a torrent of invective. He drew his 
sword, and, putting the point under the shoulder-straps 
of the officer, ripped them off, and then compelled him 
to dismount and lead the animal to the place whence 
he had stolen him. lie also required him to pay tliu 



66 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

farmer for his trouble and the loss of service of the an- 
imal. 

When the battle of Mill Spring began it found Thom- 
as in a bad humor, and on the first opportunity he had 
for "pitching into" any one he did not fail to take ad- 
vantage of it. The victim was Colonel Mahlon D. Man- 
son, a rough, excitable, but gallant old Indianian, who 
was acting brigadier in command of his own and two or 
three other regiments. Under the old organization of 
the volunteer army no adequate provision for aids for 
acting generals had been made, and Manson's only aid, 
his regimental adjutant, happened to be out of the wa}^ ; 
so, when the battle opened, and he had posted his regi- 
ments to receive the attack, he hastily rode back to Gen- 
eral Thomas to report in person the disposition he had 
made of his forces. It happened that in doing this Man- 
son lost his hat, and he made his appearance before 
Thomas hatless, with disheveled hair, unwashed face, and 
incomplete toilet, and Thomas's pent-up rage vented it- 
self on him. He had no sooner begun to state his posi- 
tion to Thomas than that officer interrupted him with, 

"Damn you, sir, go back to your command and fight it." 

Excited as Manson was, he caught the full meaning, 
and the perhaps unmeant insinuation of the general's 
W'ords, and returned to his command much chagrined. 
Thomas's anger did not last long after finding this vent. 
He grew pleasanter before the day was over, was in spir- 
its long before ZollicoflPer's rout was complete, and when 
he came to write his report a week afterward, spoke very 
highly of Manson. 

The self-control and coolness of Thomas under fire. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 67- 

and amid the excitement and dangers of battle, is abso- 
lutely surprising, and, until I had seen at Chickarnauga 
repeated instances of bis imperturbation, I did not be- 
lieve that human nature was capable of it. In relating 
one of the episodes of the battle, an account of which I 
published at the time, I alluded, I thought then, and 
think now, very happily to the general as. the " Statue 
Thomas." During that terrible conflict the statue warm- 
ed into life but twice. At daylight on the second day, 
before the battle had been resumed, General Eosecrans 
rode along the line of battle, examining the position 
which the troops of McCook and Crittenden had taken 
as best they could, without other guide than the sound 
of cannon or other director than stern necessity. He 
rode up to Thomas's quarters near the left centre of the 
field and asked him several questions regarding the bat- 
tle of the day before. Thomas alluded briefly to the 
events of the fight, and in speaking of his brilliant charge 
exclaimed rather warmly, " "Whenever I touched their 
flanks they broke, general, they broke," repeating the 
last words with unusual zest and evident satisfaction. 
I was listening with great eagerness and looking square- 
ly at the general, when he caught my eye, and, as if 
ashamed of his momentary enthusiasm, the blood mount- 
ed to his cheeks and he blushed like a woman. His eyes 
were bent immediately on the ground, and the rest of 
his remarks were confined to a few brief replies to the 
questions addressed to him. 

The other instance to which I was a witness occurred 
during the afternoon of the second day's battle, and in 
the midst of a lull which had followed the retreat of 



68 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

McCook and Crittenden and the falling back of Thom- 
as's right division. The general was sitting in the rear 
of the line of battle of his right as re-formed, engaged in 
watching a heavy cloud of dust in the distance, and in 
such a direction that it might be the enemy, or it might 
be the reserve forces of Gordon Granger, which had been 
posted some iiistance in rear of the battle-field at Eoss- 
ville, and which it was hoped would march to the aid of 
the army. The doubt under which he labored cast a 
visible cloud over the general's spirits, and excited his 
nerves to an unusual degree. He had no disposition to 
resume the fight, and, fearful of the result of the next 
attack of the rebels, was anxious to avoid a resumption 
of the battle. He consequently watched the develop- 
ment of the cloud of dust in the distance with painful 
anxiety. If it dissolved to reveal friends, then they were 
doubly welcome, for fresh friends insured the safe retire- 
ment of that fraction of the army which still held its 
ground. If it disclosed the enemy, then the day and 
army were lost, and it became the duty of those who 
formed this "last square" at Chickamauga to throw into 
the teeth of the victorious enemy a defiance as grandly 
contemptuous as that of Cambronne, and die. There 
was no escape if the troops advancing from the rear 
were, as it was feared, the cavalry of the enemy. Gen- 
eral Tom Wood, hearing some one express himself to this 
effect, threw in a word of encouragement by saying that 
it was evident it was not cavalry, "for," said he, "don't 
you see the dust rising above them ascends in thick 
misty clouds, not in spiral columns, as it would if the 
force was cavalry," a remark which indicated the close 



DISTINGUISHED GENERATES. 69 

observation of General Wood. The anxiety of General 
Thomas increased with every moment of delay in the 
development of the character of the advancing columns. 
At one time he said nervously to his staff, "Take my 
glass, some of you whose horse stands steady — tell me 
what you can see." I was standing near him at the mo- 
ment looking through a field-glass, and remarked tluit I 
felt sure that I could see the United States fkig. 

"Do you think so ? do you think so?" asked the gen- 
eral, nervously. 

Shortly after. Captain G. M. L. Johnston, of General 
Negley's staff, reported to Thomas for duty, and the gen- 
eral requested him to venture toward the advancing force, 
and learn, if possible, to which army it belonged, John- 
ston was gone- for some time, running the gauntlet of the 
rebel sharp-shooters, who were fast enveloping Thomas's 
left wing. During his absence the anxiety of Thomas 
increased until it grew painful to the observer, and the 
relaxation which followed the revelation of the fact that 
the coming force were friends was a positive relief to the 
by-standers. As Johnston returned with General Steed- 
man the nerves of Thomas calmed down, and his excite- 
ment was hardly visible save in the petulant tone and 
manner in which he cursed Bragg for fighting without 
any system. During the fight which ensued he remained 
as passive and apparently as unconcerned as if he were 
in the safest place imaginable. 

During the morning of the second day of the same 
battle I was again near General Thomas when the rebels 
made a vigorous attack on his breast-works. He and a 
single staff officer were sitting a little in the rear of the 



70 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

centre of the line, and just in range of the shells which 
the enemy was throwing with great vigor and rapidity. 
While thus exposed, a shell passed between the general 
and his aid, causing them to look at each other with a 
quiet smile. A moment afterward another shell took 
the same route. The general, instead of smiling this 
time, turned to his aid and said, 

" Major, L think we had better retire a little," and fell 
back a few yards to a small wood. 

On the night after this battle, and when the troops had 
retired to Eossville, Greneral Thomas was asked by Col- 
onel B. F. Scribner to take a cup of coffee at his camp- 
fire, and did so. Scribner had been slightly wounded in 
the head, and the clotted blood still stood upon his face, 
left there in order to prevent the wound from continuing 
to bleed. Thomas sat down by Scribner, drank his cof- 
fee, saw the wound of Scribner, talked of commonplace 
matters for half an hour, but never by word or act al- 
luded in the slightest way to the fact that he had just 
fought one of the most important battles of the war, and 
saved the army from annihilation. No one could have 
known from Thomas's remarks that a battle had been 
raging, or that his host had been wounded. 

One of the great faults of Thomas's character is due to 
this extreme solidity of his nervous system. Without 
rendering him exactly selfish or acrimonious, it has made 
him cold and undemonstrative in manner, and rather in- 
sensible to the emotions. He is generous without being 
enthusiastic, and kind without being at all demonstrative. 
He has been compared to Washington, but the compari- 
son was made by General Rosecrans, who, by the way, 



DISTINGUISUED GENERALS. 71 

knew nothing wliatever of human nature, and could not 
read it even with the best spectacles of saddest experi- 
ence ; and the comparison holds good only thus far, that 
Thomas, as Washington was, is portly of person and digni- 
fied of manner. His undemonstrative manner has given 
to many the idea that he was incapable of strong affec- 
tions, firm fr-iendships, or noble emotions ; and the only 
enemies whom he had were men with whom he had been 
on terms of friendship, and who, falling under disfavor, 
looked in vain to him for some demonstration of aid. 
There arc two or three instances, not proper to relate in 
detail, which have given Thomas's fellow-officers the idea 
that he was selfishly cold ; but I do not think such to be 
the case, for, though cold and undemonstrative, Thomas 
has never revealed aught of the selfish or envious in his 
character. His blood ran as sluggishly as oil upon wa- 
ter, but it was from principle, if such a thing could be, 
and I think it was in this case. One of the subordinate 
commanders of Thomas's army, who distinguished him- 
self at Stone Eiver and Chickamauga, was an Indiana 
colonel named Ben F. Scribner, a brave officer, who, from 
his action at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, went by 
the name of " gallant little Scrib" — a sobriquet bestowed 
upon him by General Lovell H. Eousseau, his immediate 
commander. After the battle of Chickamauga, Scribner 
was not treated fairly in the reorganization of the army 
by Rosecrans, and complained to General Thomas, his 
corps commander, of the injustice done him. During the 
conversation Colonel Scribner used the expression that 
he could not but feel that a serious wrong had been done 
him, when Thomas slowly and sadly said, 



72 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

" Colonel, I have taken a great deal of pains to educate 
myself not to feel." 

This remark gives a wonderful insight into Thomas's 
nature, and will explain much in his manner that is a 
mj'stery to thousands who have studied his character. 

General Garfield used to relate a story which gave 
rather a comical turn to the general's undemonstrative 
style, and one which I do not remember to have ever 
seen in print. In fact, it has been a somewhat doubtful 
question with me as to whether I should be justified in 
relating it, and only do so with the warning, ^'' Honi soil 
qui mal y penseJ'' "When General Thomas relieved Rose- 
crans at Chattanooga in 1863, General Garfield remained 
with him for a time as chief of staff. One morning the 
two officers were riding around the town, examining the 
defenses which were then being built, when they heard 
some one hailing with the cry, 

"Hello, mister! you! I want to speak with you." 

On looking around. General Thomas discovered that 
he was the " mister" wanted, and that the person who 
had hailed him was one of those East Tennessee soldiers 
who were always easily distinguishable from the North- 
ern soldiers by their peculiar rough, uncouth, and back- 
woods appearance. He stopped, and the man approach- 
ed him and began, 

" Mister, I want to get a furlough." 

" On what grounds do you want a furlough, my man?" 
asked the general. 

"I want to go home and see my wife," replied the East 
Tennesseean. 

"How long since you saw your wife?" asked the gen- 
eral. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 73 

" Ever since I enlisted — nigli on to three months," 

"Three months!" exclaimed the general, good-na- 
turedly. " Why, my good man, I haven't seen my wife 
for three years." 

The East Tennesseean stopped whittling the stick which 
he had in his hand, and stared for a moment incredulous- 
ly at the general. • 

" Wall, you see," he said at length, with a sheepish 
smile, " me and my wife ain't that kind," 

Shaking all over with laughter, the general put spurs 
to his horse and galloped away, leaving the astonished 
soldier unanswered. 

I should have enjoyed hugely hearing Thomas laugh 
aloud. During the three years in which I saw him al- 
most daily, and under all sorts of circumstances, I never 
saw him smile but once, and that was under circum- 
stances so peculiarly ridiculous that it would have pro- 
voked laughter from Patience on a monument, or even 
the grief that she smiled at. A low comedian, named 
Alf, Burnett, from one of the Cincinnati theatres, essayed 
to become a war correspondent, and during the summer 
of 1863 made his appearance in the camp of General 
Rosecrans, quartering himself at Triune with Colonel 
James Brownlow, son of the famous Parson Brownlow, 
and at that time in command of an East Tennessee regi- 
ment. Burnett was very good as a mimic, and particu- 
larly excelled in his delivery of a burlesque sermon in 
which the sentence "He played upon a harp of a thousand 
strings, spirits of just men made perfect," frequently oc- 
curred as a refrain. Colonel Brownlow on one occasion 
invited Burnett to deliver this sermon before his regi- 

D 



74 TEHSONAL llECOLLECTIONS OF 

ment, and, as a joke upon tLe chaplain of the command, 
that worthy was requested to announce the occasion of its 
delivery, and when the time arrived to open the services 
with a hymn. Burnett began his burlesque sermon, and 
had gone through a considerable portion of it before the 
chaplain and the soldiers began to suspect how much 
thgj had been outraged. As soon as he perceived the 
nature of the performance, the chaplain approached Bur- 
nett, took him by the back of the neck, marched hini to 
the camp limits, and with the injunction to "go and sin 
no more," kicked him out of the camp. The focts were 
at the same time represented to Roseerans, who expelled 
Burnett from the department, but, at the solicitations of 
some friends, the mimic was allowed to return to make 
his explanations. After hearing Burnett's explanation.^, 
Rosecrans insisted on hearing the " Hard-shell Baptist 
sermon," and Burnett gave it in his best style. Rose- 
crans was delighted, declared it was inimitable, and told 
Burnett he should remain at his quarters, should deliver 
it nightly, and would have put him on his staff if Burnett 
had asked it. The sermon became Rosecrans's hobby ; 
he thought and talked for a time of nothing else, and 
one night invited General Thomas to quarters to hear it. 
The general and his staff came, and the performance be- 
gan with songs which did not interest, and continued 
with the sermon, which, much to Rosecrans's surprise, did 
not amuse "old Thom." But, after Burnett's farce had 
been finished, Rosecrans called upon Colonel Horace Por- 
ter, of the Ordnance Department, for a song, and Porter 
gave a comic Irish song in the best brogue, accompany- 
ing himself by imitating the playing upon Scotch bng- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 75 

pipes. Porter was one of the most dignified, quiet, se- 
date, and elegant officers of the army at liosccrans's head- 
quarters ; and the ridiculousness of his attitude, the con- 
trast with his usual appearance and manner, was too 
much for General Thomas, and he " smiled" almost audi- 
bly several times during the song. I never afterward 
saw the fun stirred up in Tliomas. 

The contrast between Thomas and Sherman may bo 
extended even to their personal appearance and habits; 
and in these, as in character, the diflcrence is most mark- 
ed. Thomas's figure is very striking. Something of his 
height is lost to the eye by the heaviness of his figure. 
If he were as thin as Sherman, he would look the six feet 
two or three inches which have been ignorantly attribu- 
ted to him. He is really about five feet ten or eleven 
inches in height, but so much does his heaviness detract 
from the appearance of height that he docs not appear 
so tall. Thick-set, robust, and healthy, he moves heavily 
and slowly, but by no means feebly or unsteadily. His 
beard and hair were sandy at the beginning of the late 
war, but they have since become silver sprinkled, and 
add to the great dignity of his appearance. His features 
are all large, with the exception of his nose — a long, thin 
Grecian feature which Napoleon would have admired. 
His lips are rather thick, rounded, and red. His chin 
and jaws, large and squarely cut, with his great, steady, 
though not bright eyes, indicate, more than any others 
of his features, his firmness and positiveness of character. 
His countenance is at all times severe and grave, but not 
necessarily stern. He seldom smiles; but the constant 
seriousness of his countenance is not "repulsive. It may 



76 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

be said to be forbidding. It certainly forbids trifling. 
Tlie simplest-minded man, seeking audience of bini, will 
understand, on being received by the general, by a glance 
at bis countenance, that be must be brief and to the point 
His presence is no place for loungers. Ilis visitors must 
have business to transact or retire, and they never require 
any other hint than the countenance of the general. He 
is a man in earnest, and it does not take long to discover 
it He is perhaps as free from display and pretension as 
any man in the army. He never does any thing for " ef- 
fect" His manner admits of no familiarit}-. There is 
dignity in every gesture, but not necessarily either grace 
or love. His style of living in camp is comfortable and 
even elegant His mess consists of himself and two aids. 
His mess ware is principally silver of elaborate finish. I 
breakfasted once or twice with the general during the 
Chickamauga campaign. On the occasion of each visit 
daylight and breakfast were announced simultaneously 
by an elderl}^, dignified, and cleanly-attired colored serv- 
ant, who brought me an excellent punch, with "Colonel 
Fl^'ut's compliments," as an appetizer. The breakfast- 
table was spread under the fly of the tent, which served 
as a kitchen, and on it smoked fresh beef, ham, and strong 
black coffee. At each silver plate was a napkin of the 
purest white, artistically folded in the latest style of the 
first-class hotels, a silver water-goblet, a china cup, and 
the usual knives and silver forks. Better beef and bet- 
ter coffee, could not have been found in the country in 
which the army was campaigning, while the hot rolls 
and potatoes, baked in the hot ashes of a neighboring 
fire, would have made many a French cook blush. 



DISTINGUISHfiD GENERALS. 77 

When beginning the campaign of Atlanta Sherman 
endeavored to effect an important innovation in the 
habits of his army by carrying out to the veiy letter his 
instructions to " move light," ^. c, without extra baggage. 
In order to impress upon his officers the necessity of set- 
ting ti good example to the men, he published an order, 
in which he stated that the "general commanding in- 
tended making the campaign without tent or baggage." 
The hint was lost on most of the officers, and amonc oth- 

' CD 

ers on Thomas, who moved in his usual heavy style, 
with a complete head-quarter train and the usual num- 
ber of tents, adding indeed to the usual allowance a largo 
wagon arranged with desks, which, when covered by a 
hospital-tent fly, made a very complete adjutant gener- 
al's office. Tlie campaign began, and Shei-man made 
several days' march without his tent, sleeping any where 
that night overtook him, but before reaching Resaca he 
was very glad to take up his abode near Thomas's head- 
quarters, and make use of his tents and adjutant general's 
office. 

No one has ever accused General Thomas of being a 
genius either militarily or otherwise. He neither plans 
campaigns with the aptitude and originality of Sherman, 
nor fights battles with the vigor and abandon of Sheri- 
dan. Thomas's success has been obtained by long serv- 
ice and patient industry, and he is an example of what 
may be accomplished by the unremitting toil of a prac- 
tical man. lie is possessed naturally of that good, clear 
sense which is often inappropriately called common sense, 
but wliich is of no common order at all. He has never 
been brilliantly educated, and is neither a brilliant think- 



78 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

er nor converser. He is doubtless well versed in West 
Point lore and the art of war. His education has been 
derived principally from a long and varied experience 
with the world, which has rendered him pre-eminently a 
practical man. His mind consequently takes naturally, 
as has been before stated, to method, and every thing he 
does is completed (in the full sense of the word) in a 
methodical manner. There is little that is original in 
his plans or his mode of executing them, but all are dis- 
tinguished for their practicability and completeness. His 
calculations leave a wide range for contingencies, delays, 
and accidents, and are not easily disturbed by untoward 
incidents and unexpected developments. He never goes 
into a campaign or battle without knowing exactly how 
to get out of it safely, in case the necessity for retreating 
arises. He has on more than one occasion furnished the 
means of getting the armies of others out of danger. At 
Stone River, when Rosecrans was defeated and his coun- 
cil of war proposed to retreat, Thomas showed that the 
safety of the army depended upon remaining and assum- 
ing the defensive. At Chickamauga, when the same 
leader left his army in the midst of a terrible battle and 
at the beginning of a rout of the greater part of it, Thom- 
as again came to the rescue, and covered the retreat in a 
manner which saved the day and the arnw. 

With his troops Thomas is a most popular leader. He 
has the deep-seated and deep-rooted affection of his men, 
which is not the less sincere because it is undemonstra- 
tive. He is looked upon by the army with a sort of af- 
fectionate reverence, and he possesses in the highest de- 
gree the confidence of his men. To this more than to 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 79 

any other feeling, person, or circumstance, the nation 
owed the safety of its army at Chitikamauga. This feel- 
ing of confidence in its leader did more to hold his corps 
together on that day — did more to keep up the esprit du 
corps of his command during the terrible attacks to which 
it was subjected, than did all the discipline which had 
otherwise been drilled into the men. The men of the 
two routed coips were just as good, just as brave, and 
just as tenacious fighters as were Thomas's men, but 
tliey had no faith at all in the wisdom of their leaders, 
McCook and Crittenden, who were not men of either in- 
spiring presence or iron qualities. Men will not stand 
and fight under officers in whom they have not the most 
implicit faith. Such confidence is reposed in Thomas to 
the fullest degree, and is accoinj)anied by an afl^'ectionate 
regard which adds to its strength. 

Soldiers, as I have had occasion to remark elsewhere, 
have a very natural mode of expressing their affection by 
titles of endearment, indicative of the peculiarities of the 
subjects of their admiration. Thomas has been christen- 
ed with dozens of " nicknames." When he was at West 
Point and in the regular army in Mexico, he was called 
"Old Reliable," from his recognized and proverbial fidel- 
ity to the service. During the Mill Spring and Stone 
River campaigns he won from his men tlie sobriquet of 
" Old Pap Safety." This was subsequently boiled down 
into "Pap Thomas," by which name he is called more 
frequently than by any other. His slow gait, and quiet, 
dignified style of riding, gained him the title of " Old 
Slow-trot." " Uncle George" and " George H." are often 
used by the men in facetious hours, and the titles always 



80 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

linger on the tongues of the soldiers like sweet morsels. 
And though these titles are used by the men with an air 
and in a tone indicating familiarity with their leader, 
none of them ever knew him, in his communication with 
them, to sacrifice his dignity in the slightest degree. 
They have no difiiculty in reaching his ear. They al- 
ways find a patient listener and a sound adviser, and a 
kindly mannered and pleasant director. He never laughs 
and jokes with soldiers or officers, but his mild voice and 
quiet manner win him more of the love of his men than 
any momentary familiarity could do. I have known him 
to halt in the march and spend ten or fifteen minutes in 
directing stragglers to their commands. 

General Thomas is the purest man I met in the army. 
He was the Bayard of our army — ^^sans j^eur, sans re- 
'proclie^'' and I have endeavored in vain to find a flaw 
in his character. His character is free from every stain, 
and he stands forth in the army as above suspicion. He 
has gone through the war without apparently exciting 
the jealousy of a single officer. He has so regulated his 
advancement — so retarded, in fact, his promotion, that 
when, as the climax to two years' hard service, he fought 
a great battle and saved a great army, and was hailed 
and recognized by the whole country as a hero, not one 
jealous or defeated officer was found to utter dissent to 
this popular verdict. 

There was at one time some ill feeling between Grant 
and Thomas, growing out of the anomalous position in 
which both were placed by Halleck when the army was 
besieging Corinth, but I believe that was cleared up. 
General Grant was made second in command under Hal- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 81 

I^jlt, and his army was given to Thomas, who remained 
in active command in the field. Grant's position was re- 
ally none at all ; it was not recognized by regulations^r 
uses, and was felt by him to be an insult put upon him 
(he imagined at one time) at the instigation of General 
Thomas. Such was not the fact, however, and General 
Grant so became finally convinced. 

The late rebellion was the school of many of our best 
officers, and dearly did the country pay in its best blood 
the tuition of some. Bull Run was the price which the 
country paid for having its erroneous idea of .war violent- 
ly corrected. The failure of the first assault on Vicks- 
burg and of the attack on Kenesaw Mountain were fear- 
ful prices paid to correct certain errors of judgment in 
Sherman's mind. We paid for M'Clellan's violation of 
a well-known rule of war in placing the Chickahomi- 
ny between his battalions. Numerous similar instances 
might be named, showing how the country has been 
compelled to pay terrible penalties of blood for the igno- 
rance of unworthy and incompetent leaders ; but enough. 
Thomas's training in the art of war has cost the country 
not a single disaster or sacrifice. On the contrary, he 
has saved the country, on more^than one occasion, the 
fearful penalty it was about to pay for the ignorance of 
other leaders. He has been prominent in three grand 
campaigns. Two of them he has conducted on his own 
plans and in person. In the other he acted as second in 
command. The two which he planned and conducted 
were complete successes ; and the other, as far as he was 
concerned, a magnificent triumph. His first campaign 
in the war for the Union was that against the fortified 

D2 



82 TEKSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ctinip of Zollicoflbv at Mill Sjn'ings, Kentucky. His pl^n 
Lmbracod an assault ujion the rebel works; but bel'ore 
l^TCould get into })osition to do this the cMienij marched 
owl oi' his works and allneked him in his camp, failing in 
an attempti to sui-pi'ise him. 'JMie rebels tailed also in 
the battle which ensued, and were terribly defeated, with 
heavy loss, and at the saeriliee of the organi/ation of their 
army. Night, alone, under cover of which it crossed the 
Cumberland River, ju'cvented the capture of the entire 
rebel force. Fourteen jiieces of artillery, fifteen hund- 
red horses, with all the stores of the enemy and a large 
number of prisoners, fell into our hands. This victory 
was complete, and doubly welcomed as the first positive 
success since the battle oi' \\\i\\ Run. The country hailed 
it as the first sign of the rejuvenation and reorganization 
of the army. Tlie rebel "army t>f Western Kentucky" 
has never been heard oi' since that ilisasti'ous day ; and 
George J>. Crittenden, its commander, sank at once into 
disgrace and oblivion as a consequence of his defeat. 

In the campaign and battle of Chickamauga Thomas 
was second in command to Eosecrans, but in all its im- 
portant actions his is the principal figui-e. The story of 
Chickamauga has been often, and, in one or two instances, 
well told ; but the whole truth about it must be reserved 
until time shall ]iermit the historian to tell it without fear 
oY favor, ^rhomas stands forth the undisputed hero of 
that day — the single spirit upon whom all depends. He 
is the central figure. There are no heroes beside him. 
The young and noble ones who died, as Lytic and Burn- 
ham, Van IVlt and Jones, and those not less noble spirits 
who distin<;-uished themselves and lived to be rewarded, 



l)ISriN(llllSIlMI) (!KNKUAI-S. ii'6 

.IS Baird find Dick Johiistoii, old Slccdman and yonng 
Johnston, who guidud his columns to the, assault, Wood 
and llarkcr — all these surrounding ^J^homas but ;uld to 
his glory as the parlielion adds to th(^ beiiuty oC the sun. 
On the first day at Chiekaniauga 'J^liomas did his shai'c 
towai'd the destruction ol'a great rebel army, but it was 
in vain. 'V\]v, (Vuits ol' his victoiy were frittered a,wa,y 
by the incompetency of others, ^fhere was no general 
advance when ho advanced. On the second day it was 
too late; the enemy had succeeded in crossing his whoU; 
army over the Chickamauga, and the ()|)])()itunity to de- 
stroy his forces in detail was gone foi-ever. (Ji icjimstanees 
then devolved upon ''i^homas tlu; task of saving a great 
army, not destroying one. 'J^he duty was nobly jjerlbrm- 
cd, and the army nobly saved; and though those who 
were not pi-esent, and who judge of the battle from hear- 
say, may be mystifu'd by the eii'cundocution and vague- 
ness of official reports, those who staid at Chickamauga 
know very well that Thomas alone retrieved that disaster 
and saved Eosecrans's army. 

A short time aflcr 1 hud ])ublished in Harper's Mag- 
azine the sketch of General ^fhomas, of which this is a 
revised edition, I received many letters from old friends 
com})laining that I had not done him justice in using the 
expression "Thomas originates nothing," and many were 
the instances quoted showing his originality of mind and 
plans. None of the arguments or examples given were 
convincing, however, and 1 have left the exj)ression un- 
changed. One of these complainants stated that Genei'al 
Thomas was the originator of the plan to go through 
Snake Creek (Jap in ortlei' to get upon Joe Johnston's 



84 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

rear and flank ; but I am inclined to think this an error. 
The writer narrated that a few daj'S after starting on the 
Atlanta campaign in May, 1864, Sherman, having thor- 
oughly reconnoitred Rocky Face Ridge, the defensive 
line of the enemy, decided that it was necessary to storm 
and carry the position. Sitting one day on the railroad 
bank in front of Buzzard Roost Gap, he confided this 
opinion to General Thomas. 

"It can't be done, general," Thomas answered; "the 
ridge can not be carried." 

"But it must be," said the impetuous Sherman, with 
his usual petulance. General Thomas repeated his ob- 
servation. 

"But then we can't stay here," urged Sherman ; "we 
must go ahead — we can't stop here. There is nothing- 
left but to assault the ridge." 

" Have you tried every other means, general ? Can't 
we go around them?" asked Thomas, at the same time 
unfolding his map. 

" Yes, yes, we have tried all other means." 

"Why can't we go through Snake Creek Gap?" asked 
Thomas. The voices of the two, according to my inform- 
ant, here became lowered ; the two generals bent their 
heads over the map ; and it is claimed by Thomas's ad- 
mirer that the result of that conversation was the occupa- 
tion of the mountain gorge of Snake Creek Gap. Al- 
though told with much detail and precision, I am not at 
all disposed to credit this story, and I am convinced that, 
thouo'h not without foundation, there is an error some- 
where. Another admirer of General Thomas wrote me 
claiming for him the credit of having originated and 



DISTINGUISHED GENEJIALS. 85 

planned " Sherman's march to the sea." ITc states tliat, 
shortly after the occu})ation of Atlanta, and while Uood's 
army was still in Sherman's front, General Thomas pro- 
posed to General Sherman to take the lith and 20th 
corps^ and march through the state to Savannah or some 
point on the coast equally important. The plan was 
not immediately acted on ; information was received of 
Hood's ])urpose to flank Atlanta and go northward, and 
General Thomas was sent to Nashville to organize the 
forces there in order to meet hira. Hood did move north, 
and Sherman decided to leave hira to the care or the 
mercy of Thomas, while he, with the 14th, 15th, 17th, 
and 20th corps, twice the force originally said to have 
been proposed by Thomas, and really three times the 
force actually necessary for the movement, made the 
march which Thomas had planned. I very much doubt 
the full truth of this statement, though I do not know 
that it is untrue in any particular. But whether or not 
he planned it matters little; Thomas at Nashville may 
be said to have executed it, and to him, and not to Sher- 
man, belongs the credit of its success. I have always 
wondered how Sherman came to delegate the subordinate, 
Thomas, with the lesser half of the army, to fight the 
main battles and conduct the real campaign, while he, 
the superior officer, with the greater half of the force, 
made a detour in which no danger was encountered — no 
danger, in fact, apprehended — and which could have been 
better effected with half the force. 

When the London Times characterized Sherman's 
march to the sea as the "Anabasis of Sherman," and de- 
clared that it was virtually a retreat, the London Times 



8t) TEHSONAL KEOOLLECTIONS OF 

was exactly right, but the American people " could not 
see it." But the stupidity of the rebels made that retreat 
a success ifistead of a disaster to us. Had the Fabian 
policy of Joe Johnston prevailed — had Atlanta been sur- 
rendered ^Yithout a struggle, and had the rebels been 
content to cover Macon with their infantry and employ 
their cavalry in destroying the single railroad which in- 
adequately supplied Sherman's army, the retreat to Sa- 
vannah and the sea would have been instead a retreat to 
Chattanooga. When Hood removed his arm}' from Sher- 
man's front, he presented that already doubting general 
with a second alternative, whereas he had but one before, 
and permitted him to choose of two routes by which to 
retreat. Sherman chose, for the sake of the morale of 
his men and of the people, to " retreat forward'' to Savan- 
nah instead of " advancing backward" to Chattanooga, 
and went olY at a tangent to the sea. His unexpected 
detour did not interfere with Hood's plans. The rebel 
had no more and no fewer enemies to fight than he 
would have had if Sherman liad followed him. Sher- 
man could not have concentrated his forces at Nashville 
in time to meet Hood, for portions of the last force which, 
under General Steedman, fell back from Chattanooga to 
re-enforce Kashville were cut olf by the enemy and did 
not reach the field at all. With this view in his mind, 
apprehending no danger from Sherman, and believing he 
could defeat Thomas, Hood pushed on, with what result 
is known. He met Thomas at Nashville, and the con- 
sequence was his annihilation. The success of Thomas 
made Sherman's march a success, and hence the former 
deserves the full credit for the latter's achievement. How 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 87 

great this credit is can bo seen by forming in Jj|e mind 
an idea of the consequences wbicb would bavc attended 
a laibire on Thomas's part. Had he been defeated Nash- 
ville would have fallen ; Hood would have marched into 
Kentucky and appeared on the line of the Ohio, while 
Sherman, making his appearance a thousand leagues awa}'- 
on the South Atlantic coast, would have found himself 
written down a great foilure instead of a great general. 

The battles of Nashville were not greater in result than 
grand in execution, and are, to my mind, Thomas's finest 
examples of grand tactics. I can not here allude to them 
in detail. The operations were conducted in a manner 
characteristic of the man. The retreat and concentration 
at Nashville was a masterly performance, executed with- 
out confusion and completed without loss. The battle be- 
fore the city was one of hard blows and simple manoeu- 
vres, fought after ample preparation and due delibera- 
tion. The columns were heavy and massed, and the lines 
strong and deep. The action was slow and measured. 
In the midst of the engagement there were numerous 
lulls — pauses employed in dreadful preparation, in re-ar- 
ranging lines and massing columns. There were numer- 
ous deliberate assaults of strong positions, and in every 
minute detail of the general plan there was visible a com- 
bined effort of each part of the army to reach some vital 
point of the enemy's position, the key of the battle-field. 
When this was won the battle was ended. The victory 
was the result of cool, deliberate action. The troops 
were tools in the hands of their leader, and were made 
willing and trusty instruments through the absolute and 
unbounded confidence which they felt in him. 



88 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

111 tli^three campaigns of Mill Spring, Chickamauga, 
and Nasnville, the career of General Thomas is chiefly 
embraced. In the minor events of his military career 
there is nothing to detract from the glory which attaches 
to him in these. 




ULVaSBS 8. UBANT. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 91 



CHAPTER III. 

GRANT AS A GENERAL. 

The clearest conception of the characters of Generals 
Sherman and Thomas is obtained by contrasting them. 
A correct estimate of General Grant may be had by 
forming in the imagination a character combining the 
peculiarities of both Sherman and Thomas ; for in the 
person of the lieutenant general the very opposite quali- 
ties which distinguish the others meet and combine with 
singular grace and felicity. General Grant does not 
make so effective, or, so to speak, so dramatic a picture 
as Sherman, nor does he present so dignified, that is to 
say, so stately an appearance as Thomas; yet he com- 
bines in himself the originality and energy of the first, 
with the deliberation, coolness, and pertinacity of the lat- 
ter. Without the constant fire and fury of Sherman, 
without the occasional sudden, fiery impulse of Thomas, 
Grant, always cool, calm, and dispassionate, is also always 
firm, always decided, and always progressive. Sherman 
is as mercurial as a Frenchman, and as demonstrative as 
an Italian ; Thomas as phlegmatic as a Dutchman, and as 
tenacious as an Englishman ; while Grant in every char- 
acteristic, in doggedness, pertinacity, positiveness, and tac- 
iturnity, is thoroughly American, and nothing else. Grant 
is a true sailor, in that he dreads both the storm of battle 



92 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OP 

and the calm of inactivity, and bis appropriate motto is 
"/?i medio iutwsimus ihisy Thomas delights most in 
calm — is always calm himself, even in the midst of rough- 
est seas. Sherman, on the contrary, delights in tempests, 
and would now be nothing if there had been no storm. 
Professor Mahan, who was the tutor of Grant and Sher- 
man, has furnished a very handsome illustration of the 
contrast between them by comparing the first-named to a 
powerful low-pressure engine " which condenses its own 
steam and consumes its own smoke, and which pushes 
steadily forward and drives all obstacles before it," while 
Sherman belongs to the high-pressure class of engines, 
" which lets off both steam and smoke with a puff and a 
cloud, and dashes at its work with resistless vigor." 
Grant has Sherman's originality of mind, and, like him, 
gave expression to several new and striking thoughts 
upon the subject of the rebellion and its suppression, but 
they were invariably clothed in the full, rounded, and 
stately periods of Thomas rather than the sharp, curt, 
and nervous language of Sherman. He has planned 
several campaigns with not less of originality than that 
displayed by Sherman, but they have always been exe- 
cuted with the deliberation and persistence which is so 
prominent a characteristic of Thomas. Sherman has 
given us several splendid illustrations of strategy and 
logistics, as witness his marches in Mississippi, Georgia, 
and the Carolinas, but his battles will never be quoted 
as brilliant examples of grand tactics. Thomas has dis- 
played his abilities chiefly in the tactics of the battle- 
field, and has given us at Mill Spring and Nashville two 
splendid illustrations of the offensive, and at Chickamau- 




liOUKiii' K. i.i:k. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 95 

ga a magnificent example of defensive battle ; but his 
marches, which are always slow and labored, are never 
likely to become famous. Grant has excelled in both 
these important branches of the art of war, and has given 
us brilliant examples of each, proving himself a master 
in each branch of the art of war. He uses the strategy 
of Sherman to reach his chosen battle-field, and then cm- 
I)loys the grand tactics of Thomas to win the victory. 
At the risk of becoming tedious in endeavoring to im- 
press this idea on the mind of the reader, I can not here 
repress the desire to again call attention to the natural 
arid singular manner in which the three great generals 
of the war alternately appear in contrast and comparison 
as the great strategist, the great tactician, and the great 
general of the age. 

After the great success of Grant below Richmond, cul- 
minating in the surrender of Lee, the rebels, though they 
had persistently ignored any latent greatness in Grant, 
were delighted to frequently discover similarities between 
the victor and the vanquished, and numerous were the 
comparisons which were instituted commendatory of Lee, 
and patronizingly of Grant. The two, as men and as 
generals, should rather have been placed in contrast; for, 
sav* in the silent, observant thoughtfulness which distin- 
guishes both, they have hardly a trait in common. It is 
impossible to compare the most positive man of the war 
with the least resolute of the rebellion ; the strongest of 
the true with the weakest of the ful.se cause; the grandest 
character with the most contemptible ; a great and suc- 
cessful general on the offensive with a weak and unsuc- 
cessful general on the defensive. As a general, Grant 



96 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

always assumed tlie offensive, and was uniformly suc- 
cessful. The opposite is strictly true of Lee. Lee's first 
offensive campaign m Western Virginia against McClel- 
lan was a failure ; bis first defensive efforts against the 
same leader a great success. His second offensive move- 
ment against Pope foiled, and his third offensive move- 
ment, culminating at Antietam, was a great disaster. His 
second and third defensive battles, Fredericksburg against 
Burnside, and Chancellorsville against Hooker, were suc- 
cessful. His fourth offensive campaign signally failed at 
Gettysburg. His next campaign was defensive. It was 
fought in a country naturall}^ strong for defensive pur- 
poses, in ojiposition to the man to whom he is compared, 
where he should be contrasted. Though conducted with 
energy and stubbornness, it was finally a great defeat, and 
annihilated Lee's army as it should have done his pre- 
tensions to great generalship. Lee saw fit only to be a 
soldier and obe}'-, not a leader to direct. He had none 
of the attributes of a revolutionist or of greatness ; else, 
when seeing and declaring that the cause of the rebel 
leaders was hopeless, he would, as morallj'' the strongest 
man in the Soutli, and practically the head of the rebel- 
lion as the head of the army, have declared that no more 
blood should be uselessly shed, no more of war's desola- 
tion be visited upon the people. But it does not seem 
ever to have entered the head of this man that, perceiv- 
ing the cause hopeless, and wielding the power which 
temporarily sustained that cause, it was his duty to for- 
bid its farther prosecution at the price of blood. Had 
Lee possessed the courage, decision, and positiveness of 
Grant, he would himself have been peace commissioner 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 97 

instead of Stephens and his colleagues, and he alone the 
contracting power. A truly great and honest soldier in 
Lee's position, and with the convictions of the hopeless- 
lessness of the rebel cause expressed by him in 18(55, 
would have made peace, even if he had been compelled 
to put Jeff. Davis in irons to do so. As a man, com- 
pared with Grant, Lee has none of the characteristics 
natural to greatness; and when he joined the rebels for 
the sake of no great principle involving honor, but sim- 
ply, as he declared in a letter to his sister, because he 
did not wish to raise his hand against relatives and chil- 
dren, although he believed them engaged, if not in a bad 
cause, at least in one for which there was no just occa- 
sion, he sank all individuality, and became a traitor out 
of mere indecision of character. If Lee is never hung 
as a traitor, he ought to be as a warning to all people 
"who have not minds and opinions of their own. For 
this, the weakest act of a weak existence, there is no 
counterpart in Grant's life, but a thousand, or rather, I 
should say, one constant and unvarying contrast. 

The resemblance between Generals Grant and Thomas 
in personal appearance and character is more marked 
than between the former and Sherman. The comparison 
between Grant and Sherman must indeed be confined to 
their military characteristics. The resemblance is most 
noted in the fertility of invention which distinguishes 
both in a higher degree than any two men hitherto de- 
veloped by the war. Neither ever lacks for resources. 
Grant, with an inventive faculty truly wonderful, extri- 
cates himself from all difficulties with an originality not 
less admirable on account of tlio boldness with which his 

E 



98 PERSONAL KKCOLLECTIONS OF 

designs arc acconiplishccl. The originality of his designs, 
not less than the boldness with which he acts, adds to the 
certainty of success. If one resource fails he has another 
at hand. He creates opportunities, and, though he is 
no Cadmus, at whose will armed men spring from the 
ground, yet he may be said to originate the materials of 
action, and to supply by his energy and his spirit, his 
invention and tactics, many of the dcliciencies existing 
in his physical force. He is not easily disheartened, but 
seems greatest in disaster or when surrounded by dilli- 
culties. He is not easily driven from the prosecution of 
a plan. He carefully examines its merits before he de- 
cides upon it, and fully tests its practicability before he 
abandons it for another. That to which he is compelled 
to resort by reason of the foilure of one is not less ma- 
tured than the first. It may be said with truth that he 
has never been forced to abandon any general ])hm upon 
which he had determined, though the campaign against 
Richmond was mtnlitled by circumstances and foots de- 
veloped at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania. The pur- 
pose of the campaign overland was the destruction of an 
important line of railroad, and the desolation of a rich 
country, by and in which the enemy was enabled to exist 
at the very doors of Washington, and by thus forcing him 
to aband.()n his threatening and offensive attitude, ena- 
ble Grant to jtlaee the army operating against EichnuMul 
in its only true strategical position south of the James 
River. It is now apparent to all that, had the attack 
of General W. V. Smitli on Petersburg in June, 1804, 
proved successful — as there was every reason to suppose 
it would, and really no good reason why it did not — the 



DISTINGUISIIEJ) GENERALS. 99 

capture of Richmond would have followed immcdiulcly. 
There exists a notaljle resemblance between this cam- 
paign of Giant's and that of Sherman against Atlanta. 
Both were prosecuted against large armies j)osted and 
fortified in a countiy naturally difficult to penetrate, and 
ill which the enemy had all the advantages arising from 
defensible positions. Both were characterized by bril- 
liant flank movements made in the very teeth of the en- 
emy. And though Sherman's campaign embraced none 
of the desperate and lengthy battles in which Grant en- 
gager!, it is marked by several combats of unusual des- 
peration, generally occurring on the march and fought 
for position. 

Like Sherman, Grant is a fine mover and feeder of an 
army. 'JMie marches of each are made with great pre- 
cision, and their logistical calculations are marked by 
great accuracy. If such were not the case, the dangerous 
flank movements of the one at the Wilderness and Spott- 
sylvatiia Court-house, and of the other across the Alia- 
toona Mountains and around Atlanta, might have result- 
ed in very grave and serious disasters. Both generals 
have a full and genuine appreciation of the imporlancc 
of economy of time in tlie collection, and of quantity in 
the distribution of suj)];)lics; and in view of the fact that 
both have at all times operated at a great distance, and 
at times entirely disconnected from their bases of supply, 
the regulation and completeness with which their vast 
armies have been fed is surprising, and calls forth the 
fullest admiration for the administrative ability which 
each has displayed. The energy which Grant possesses, 
in a degree fully ccjual to that of Sherman, differs mate- 



100 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

rially, however, in character from that of that erratic 
warrior. There is nothing nervous about it, nor can it 
be said to be inspiring like that of Sherman, but it is no 
less effective. Sherman's energy supplies all that may 
be lacking in his subordinates, and retrieves their blun- 
ders and delays. Grant's energetic manner of working 
soon teaches subordinates that delinquencies are not 
allowable. The comparison might be extended farther 
and to other features, while some minor traits of opposite 
characteristics might be mentioned. Both are unselfish 
and unambitious, or it would perhdps be a better expres- 
sion to say both are unselfishly ambitious, holding their 
own interests second to those of the country. Sherman 
acknowledges Grant to have been the first to appreciate 
and encourage him after his consignment to that tomb 
of military Capulets, Jefferson Barracks. Grant attrib- 
utes much of his uniform success to the skill of his sec- 
ond in command. Neither ever wearies of sounding the 
praises or of admiring the qualifications of the other. 
Among the points of character in which they differ is 
temper, that of Grant being exceedingly good in the 
sense of moderate and even, while Sherman's is very bad 
in the sense of irritability and unevcnness. There can 
be no doubt that both are good, generous, and unselfish 
men at heart. 

The persistence with which Grant pursues an object 
or executes a plan, the tenacity with which he fights, 
his practicability, reservedness, and taciturnity, are the 
strongest points of resemblance between himself and 
Thomas. It is difficult to say which excels in these qual- 
ities. Grant's famous dispatch from Spottsylvania, " I 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. lUi 

propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," 
was written with compressed lips — the reader naturally 
reads it with clenched teeth — and fairly and graphically 
illustrates the perseverance and stubbornness of the man. 
It is even more forcible than the memorable dispatch of 
Thomas, " We will hold Chattanooga till we starve ;" and 
in better taste than that of Granger's, "I am in possession 
of Knoxville, and shall hold it till hell freezes over." 
Grant's criticism on the Army of the Potomac, which is 
doubtless as just an opinion of that army as has ever been 
uttered, illustrates this trait of his character still more 
forcibly and elegantly. A short time after he assumed 
personal supervision of Meade's army, General Oglesby 
asked him what he thought of its 23erso7i)iel. 

" This is a very fine army," he replied, " and these 
men, I am told, have fought with great courage and brav- 
ery. I think, however, that the Army of the Potomac 
has never fought its battles through.''^ It certainly fought 
them through at the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and on 
the Appomattox, and fully confirmed Grant's faith in the 
superior endurance of the men. 

It is also related of Grant that, when young, he was 
very fond of playing chess, and played with great skill, 
but found among his opponents one who was his supe- 
rior, and who used to win the first games of a sitting with 
ease. But Grant was never content to remain beaten, 
and would insist on his opponent playing until he got the 
better of him in the end by "tiring him out," and win- 
ning at chess as at war by his superior endurance. 

The following story of Grant may be apocryphal. If 
true, however, it is a fine commentary on that trait of his 



102 PEESONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

character under consideration. If not true, it shows that 
the feature is such a prominent one that anecdotes have 
been originated to illustrate it. The story runs that im- 
mediately after the battle of Shiloh, General Buell began 
criticising, in a friendly way, what he termed the bad pol- 
icy displayed by Grant in fighting with the Tennessee 
Eiver in his rear. 

" Where, if beaten, could you have retreated, general ?" 
asked Buell. 

"I didn't mean to be beaten," was Grant's ropl}''. 

" But suppose you had been defeated, despite all your 
exertions ?" 

"Well, there were all the transports to carry the re- 
mains of the command across the river." 

"But, general," urged Buell, " your whole number of 
transports could not contain over ten thousand men, and 
you had fifty thousand engaged." 

"Well, if I had been beaten," said Grant, "transporta- 
tion for ten thousand men would have been abundant for 
all that would have been left of us." 

It is not to be lightly concluded that the act of Grant 
in encamping on the same side of the river and within 
thirty miles of the enemy was bad policy. If he had en- 
camped on the cast side of the stream the rebels would 
have made the river, instead of the railroad at Corinth, 
their line of defense, and rendered its navigation very 
difficult for gun-boats and impossible for transports. The 
stream could not have been made the base of operations 
as was intended. It is doubtful if we lost more men in 
the battle of Shiloh than we should have lost in attempt- 
ing to force the passage of the stream. Grant's position 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 103 

was foultj because it was not fortified. His camp ought 
to have been intrcnclied. In the absence of works, he 
depended for protection on the flooded streams which in 
a measure surrounded bis camp, but which failed to re- 
tard the rebel advance. 

Grant's disposition to persevere has had a natural ef- 
fect in creating in him a firm reliance upon himself It 
is very seldom that he calls councils of war or asks ad- 
vice in any shape. He fears no responsibility, and de- 
cides for himself. General Howard, himself a man of 
very marked characteristics, has noticed and alluded to 
this confidence, adding that it amounted almost to the 
superstitious fatality in which Napoleon was so firm a be- 
liever. This self-reliance is doubtless, however, merely 
the full confidence which has resulted from the habit of 
independent thought and action of a man of unusually 
strong, iron will, determination, and tenacity of purpose. 
Though his language often indicates this confidence in 
himself, it never degenerates into boasting. 

During the battles of the Wilderness an aid brought 
the lieutenant general news of a serious disaster to the 
Second Corps, which was vigorously attacked by A. P. 
Hill. "I don't believe it," was the prompt answer of 
Grant, inspired by faith in his success. The aid was sent 
back for farther reports, and found that the reported dis- 
aster had been exaggerated. 

Among the most admirable qualities of Grant's mind 
and character, and in which he is most like Thomas, is 
his practicability. Grant, like Thomas, is not a learned 
scholar, but has grown wise from worldly experience. 
His wisdom is that which results from a combination of 



104 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

common sense trained to logical reflection with practical 
observation. He deals with all questions in a plain, bus- 
iness-like manner, and with all absence of ostentation or 
display, and in a systematic style, which enables him to 
dispatch a great deal of business in a very short time. 
His practicability renders him remorseless in the execu- 
tion of his plans. When he has decided it to be neces- 
sary, he pushes his massed columns upon the enemy, and 
orders the desolation and depopulation of a country with 
the same coolness, not to say indifference, with which he 
would announce a common event of little importance. 
His administration of the affairs of the Army of the Po- 
tomac, now universally acknowledged to have been of the 
highest abilitj', fully displayed this characteristic of prac- 
ticability. 

A fine illustration of his practicability is found in a 
story related of him when operating before Fort Doncl- 
son. On the night before the surrender, the preparations 
of a portion of the rebels to evacuate the fort led General 
McClernand to believe they were meditating an attack, 
and he communicated his suspicions to Grant, at the same 
time sending hin"> a prisoner who had been captured but 
a short time before. On reading McClernand's dispatch, 
Grant ordered the prisoner's haversack to be searched. 
It was found that it was filled with rations. " If the reb- 
els intend to hold the fort, they would not encumber their 
men with rations. They are preparing to leave," was 
the very sage and practical reasoning of the general ; 
and he immediately ordered McClernand to assume the 
offensive. The result was that a commanding ridge 
near Dover, south of the fort, was carried, and only a 



DISTINGUISHED GENEKALS, 105 

portion of the garrison escaped ; the remainder capitu- 
lated. 

During the battles of tlie Wilderness a rebel shell 
dropped within a few feet of Grant and Meade, making 
a furrow in the ground and bursting some distance be- 
yond. Grant, without a word, drew from his pocket a 
small compass with which he calculated the course of the 
shell. In five minutes afterward he had a piece or two 
of artillery posted near by, and opening upon, soon si- 
lenced the rebel battery, whose location had been betray- 
ed by the course of the projectile. As soon as this had 
been done, he asked the elevation of the guns which had 
done such good work. On being told, he soon estab- 
lished, by a calculation well known to every artillerist, 
the important fact of the exact distance of the enemy's 
line from his own. 

Another illustration of his practicability is also an in- 
stance of his magnanimity — a feature of his character 
equally prominent. The terms of surrender granted to 
General Lee — the dismissal of the captured army on pa- 
role, was a piece of strategy which was completely veiled 
by the apparent magnanimity of the conqueror. It was 
a splendid stroke of policy. The tender of such terms 
placed it at once out of the powxr of General Lee to de- 
cline them. His army could not have been kept together 
an hour after learning that tlicy had been generously 
offered and refused. Lee's reputation demanded his ac- 
ceptance of them. The rebel troops thus dismissed had 
to reach their homes by passing through Joe Johnston's 
army. The tale of their utter discomfiture and capture, 
and the generous treatment accorded tbcm. Grant knew, 

E2 



106 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

would be whispered in tlie ears of Johnston's men, to the 
utter demoralization and disbandment of that army. 

At Donelson and Vicksburg Grant's terms had been 
unconditional surrender. Such a surrender was import- 
ant for the moral effect to be produced at the North. 
The surrender of Lee was demanded, and the most gen- 
erous of terms granted, in order to produce the desired 
moral effect at the South. To my mind, this action illus- 
trates the greatness of Grant more forcibly than any one 
other act of his life. 

General Grant fully appreciates, as does Thomas, the 
philosophy of silence. His staff have learned to imitate 
his taciturnity ; and there is, consequently, an air of in- 
dustry and business about his head-quarters which no 
one who visits them can fail to observe. He has, through- 
out his career, published no foolish proclamations and 
made no visionary promises. His victories have been 
followed by no high-sounding addresses to his armies; 
but he has confined his compliments to a plain recital of 
the deeds of his men and the results of their achieve- 
ments. He has, moreover, gone through the war with- 
out having made a single speech. At Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, in January, ISG-i, Grant met with a spontaneous 
reception from the citizens on his arrival from East Ten- 
nessee. At the request of the populace he made his ap- 
pearance in front of his hotel, and, on being told that on 
account of his short stature he could not be seen by those 
on the outskirts of the crowd, he good-naturedly mount- 
ed a chair and bowed two or three times to the people. 
A speech was called for, but he contented himself with 
requesting Leslie Coombs, who was present, to state to the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 107 

people that he " had never made a speech in his life, knew 
nothing about the business, and had no disjDOsition to 
learn." 

I have elsewhere, in endeavoring to show how Grant is 
a combination of the strategist, Sherman, and the tactician, 
Thomas, used the expression that he employed the strate- 
gy of one to reach his chosen battle-field, and the tactics 
of the other to win the victory. Grant's own definition 
of strategy will perhaps make this idea plainer. Shortly 
after the battles of Chattanooga, he was sitting in his 
head - quarters at Nashville, with his feet comfortably 
stretched before the fire, while he enjoyed himself with 
pufiing and chewing his cigar with that completeness of 
repose which strangers to his habits have called a dull- 
ness of facial expression. Quarter-master General Meigs 
sat near him, while General W. F. Smith, who had but a 
short time before made himself quite a reputation with 
Grant by the skillful operations in Lookout Valley in 
October, 1863, paced the floor apparently absorbed in 
thought. Meigs, noticing this, broke the silence, which 
had lasted for several minutes, by asking, 

" What arc you thinking about, ' Baldy ?' " 

On receiving no reply from the absorbed officer, he 
turned to Grant and remarked, with a laugh, 

" ' Baldy' is studying strategy." 

Grant removed his cigar from his lips and said, with a 
serious air, " I don't believe in strategy in the popular 
understanding of the term. I use it to get up just as 
close to the enemy as practicable with as little loss as 
possible." 

" And what then ?" asked Meigs. 



108 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

" Then ? ' Up, guards, and at 'em ! ' " replied the gen- 
eral, with more than usual spirit ; then again lapsing into 
his accustomed taciturnity. 

Grant has " crept" upon the enemy in this war on 
several occasions to some purpose, and with an effect 
which proves that his strategy is of a superior order. 
His strategic march to the rear of Vicksburg is already 
accepted as an illustration of the art of war, and not 
many years will elapse before it will be quoted as such 
in the military academies of the country. The combina- 
tions against Eichmond are full of fine strategic marches 
and manoeuvres. The flank movement around Spottsyl- 
vania Court-house, and the march upon Petersburg, ac- 
complished in the face of the enemy, are not less brilliant 
than that of Vicksburg; while the defeat, pursuit, and 
capture of Lee are by far the most brilliant operations 
known to the history of modern warfare. General Grant's 
marches closely resemble in their general outlines those 
of Sherman. They are executed with all the energy and 
certainly as much of the skill as those of Sherman, but 
on a larger scale, with larger forces, and in the face of 
greater natural obstacles. In none of Sherman's opera- 
tions has he made the passage of such streams as the 
Mississippi or James Eivers. The mountains of Georgia 
furnish no more difiicult passes than those of Virginia. 
The marches of Sherman in Georgia and South Carolina 
are wonderful and brilliant, but they were made in the 
face of an enemy totally inadequate to cope with him. 
Those of Grant in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia, 
are not the less wonderful because made in the face of a 
strong, watchful enemy, who, in Virginia at least, had an 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 109 

admirably mobilized army, and because accompanied by 
weeks of hard contested encounters. 

The numerous battles of Grant are the most important 
and the most successful of the war. From his first vic- 
tory at Fort Donelson, through Shiloh, Corinth, and luka, 
Yicksburg, and Chattanooga, to the battles before Rich- 
mond, and the surrender of Lee, he has been almost uni- 
formly successful, and his victories have been more com- 
plete, and productive of more substantial fruits than those 
of any other commander. As his strategy is that of Sher- 
man on a larger scale, so his grand tactics are those of 
Thomas on more extensive fields. The movements and 
the manoeuvres of the two men are the same. The move- 
ments are always deliberate and heavy ; the manoeuvres 
arc always executed by massed columns formed in deep 
lines. Grant, like Thomas, appears to decide in his own 
mind the key-point of the enemy's position, and to direct 
his assaults to the ultimate possession of that point. He 
devotes every energy, and, when it is necessary, every 
life, to the attainment of this success, knowing that this 
ends the conflict. When it is gained, as at Chattanooga 
and during the engagements of April 2d before Peters- 
burg, the battle is won. If he fails to reach this key of 
the field, as in the fiVst assault at Yicksburg and at the 
Wilderness, he is beaten. If he wins the point and the 
victory, he immediately pursues the retreating foe, as at 
Chattanooga and Petersburg. But if he fails, he does not 
abandon the field. His mind is too rich in resources for 
retreat. Ceasing to be Thomas, he becomes Sherman 
again, and has recourse to strategy, whereby he forces 
the enemy to a field where his grand tactics will stand 



110 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

a better chance of success. A critical examination of 
Grant's campaigns will reveal these features fully devel- 
oped. He fully comprehends the specialty of Sherman, 
strategy, as well as that of Thomas, grand tactics, and is 
master of both. He has displayed in his campaigns, all 
of which have been of mixed operations, all the persist- 
ence and pertinacity of Thomas combined with the origi- 
nality of design and resources of mind of Sherman. But 
in none of his campaigns have these peculiarities been 
better or more brilliantly illustrated than in the cam- 
paign and battles of Chattanooga, and the not less won- 
derful campaign around Eichmond. The first is an ex- 
ample of his tactics, the latter of his strategy. 

The operations of Hooker and W. F. Smith in Lookout 
Valley, which were a part of the Chattanooga campaign, 
and which resulted in raising the siege of that strong-hold 
by opening river communication with the base of sup- 
plies, was not less original in conception or bold and bril- 
liant in execution than the famous march around Vicks- 
burg. Bragg was compelled to abandon all hope of 
starving out the garrison or capturing Chattanooga, and 
he determined to attempt the seizure of Knoxville with 
a portion of his army under Longstreet while he kept up 
a show of besieging Chattanooga with the remainder. It 
was this movement which gave Grant the opportunity 
for the display of his tactical abilities. Burnside, in ad- 
vising Grant of Longstreet's approach to attack him, re- 
ported that he (Burnside) held a line on the Tennessee 
Eiver, from London to Kingston, possessing unusual nat- 
ural advantages, and expressed the opinion that he could 
easily defeat Longstreet in any attempt he might make 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. ill 

to cross the stream. Grant immediately ordered Burn- 
side to make no defense of the line which he held, but 
to fall back to Knoxville and stand a siege, promising to 
relieve him in a few days. The result of this was that 
Longstreet was deluded into crossing the Tennessee, and 
thus placed himself far beyond supporting distance of 
Bragg. Grant's strategy had thus far resulted in divid- 
ing the rebel army into two. lie immediately went to 
work to defeat the parts in detail. 

Bragg, learning of the approach of Sherman to Grant's 
aid, attempted, on November 23, 1863, to evacuate his 
strong position before Chattanooga, and retire for safety 
beyond the mountains. Grant, unwilling to let him off 
so cheaply, made a movement to detain him, and by com- 
mencing his proposed operations a day sooner than orig- 
inally intended, he forced the rebel leader to remain in 
his rifle-pits and accept battle. Grant in nowise changed 
his plan as determined upon six days before the opera- 
tions began, except that he commenced them eighteen 
hours sooner than intended. On the afternoon of No- 
vember 23d he did that which he had previously intend- 
ed to do on the morning of the 24th. It was the move- 
ment of Granger's coiys into a position from whence, at 
the proper time, it was to assault the rebel centre. In 
this position the corps was compelled to lie idle, and in 
waiting for the auspicious moment, for eighteen hours 
longer than it was originally intended it should. This 
assault, which was made on the 25th, and was the closing 
scene of the battles, has been erroneously called one of 
those "blind, uncertain strikings which won the Alma 
and Magenta," when in reality Grant had determined 



112 PEESONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

upon it six days before it was executed, and spent two 
entire days in watching from the very front of the line 
for the moment at which to attempt it. The entire three 
days' engagement is remarkable for the consistency with 
which the plan was followed out. General Halleck pro- 
nounced the battle to be the " most remarkable in his- 
tory," and Meigs called it the " best directed battle of the 
war." Never have operations in war better illustrated 
the vast advantages of the offensive. 

The several battles of Chattanooga were fought on 
purely offensive principles, and I have often thought 
since that the secret of Grant's success ma}^ be discovered 
in the fact that he has always taken the offensive. I 
have heard men call him "the lucky Grant," and the 
newspapers speak of his good fortune ; but it is not luck 
— it is not good fortune. It is "Ze genie de la guerrey 
He does not depend upon circumstances or good fortune, 
but controls both. One such illustration from Grant, as 
witnessed at Chattanooga, shows more forcibl}^ and graph- 
ically the vast advantages of offensive warfare than can 
all the maxims of Napoleon or Jomini. From the mo- 
ment that Bragg at Chattanooga was compelled to aban- 
don his attempts at an orderly retreat and evacuation of 
his position, his movements were forced upon him, and 
his army was really controlled and commanded by Grant. 
Every movement made by the enemy may be said to 
have been ordered by Grant. Bragg, in command of the 
rebel army, was merely his mouth-piece. The plan of 
the battle contemplated the breaking of the enemy's cen- 
tre ; but this was so strongly posted on a mountain ridge 
almost inaccessible, that, in order to render success possi- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 113 

ble, it was necessary to force him to weaken his forces 
holding the centre. This was accomplished after two 
days' labor by the attacks upon either flank of the rebel 
line by Hooker and Sherman, and was no sooner made 
than perceived by Grant, who instantly ordered the as- 
sault of the centre, which resulted in the victory, and the 
capture of several thousand prisoners and sixty pieces of 
artillery. To complete the success of the operations, 
Burnside about the same time defeated Longstreet at 
Knoxville (Fort Saunders), and Sherman approaching to 
the relief of the besieged, the rebels abandoned the siege 
and retreated to Virginia, rejoining Lee soon after at 
Fredericksburg. 

In conception, execution, and result, the closing opera- 
tions of the war — the campaign to the rear of Eichmond 
— must be considered as by far the most remarkable and 
brilliant movements of the rebellion. There is every 
evidence necessary to show that the campaign, as delib- 
erately planned, was energetically carried out. The bat- 
tles of April 1st and 2d, south of Petersburg, were abso- 
lutely necessary to the solution of the strategic problem. 
The object was to gain a position on the right flank of 
Lee, in order to force him not only to evacuate Peters- 
burg, but to compel him to evacuate it in such a way that 
he would have to retreat by roads on the north side of 
the Appomattox River. By the success of this battle 
Lee was thus forced north of the river, and Grant gained 
a route to Burkesville Junction — the only point to which 
Lee could retreat — which was parallel with that of the 
rebels, and which, while separated from them a great part 
of the distance by a river, was also much shorter and 



11-1 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

without any natural obstructions such as lay in Lee's way. 
Lee had to retreat by the longer route, which was practi- 
cally made still longer by the necessity of recrossing the 
Appomattox Eiver. The consequence was that Grant 
reached Burkesville Junction by the time Lee reached 
Amelia Court-house, and not only interposed himself as 
an impassable barrier to the junction of Johnston and Lee, 
but also continually presented a force between Lee and 
Lynchburg. By keeping this force thus "heading Lee 
off," while at the same time he continually attacked him 
in flank and rear, Grant forced him, on the seventh day 
of the pursuit, to surrender his whole force. From the 
moment of occupying Burkesville, Grant held Lee in a 
position from which, if defeated in battle, he had no line 
.of retreat. He was forced to make a stand in a position 
in which, had he given battle, he would have been forced 
to an unconditional surrender or equally disastrous dis- 
persion. 

An idea of the character of General Grant must, of 
course, be formed from the developments of the war. 
His life at "West Point, and his subsequent career in Mex- 
ico and in civil life, displayed no particularly prominent 
trait of character other than an adaptation to the prac- 
tical in life. At West Point he is remembered as a quiet, 
studious, and taciturn youth, only remarkable for the de- 
cision which has since been so prominent a characteristic 
of the man. He was neither a book- worm nor an idler, 
and graduated neither first nor last, but in that medium 
rank in his class which has given to the country several 
of its most thoroughly practical and successful men. In 
Mexico he was distinguished only for the bravery which 
he displaj'-ed at Chapultepec. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 115 

In his manners, dress, and style of living. Grant displays 
more republican simplicity than any other general oificcr 
of the army. In manner he is very unassuming and ap- 
proachable, and his conversation is noticeable from its un- 
l^retending, plain, and straightforward style. There is 
nothing declamatory nor pedantic in his tone or language. 
His rhetoric is more remarkable for the compact struct- 
ure than the elegance and the finish of his sentences. He 
talks practically, and writes as he talks; and his lan- 
guage, written and oral, is distinguished by strong com- 
mon sense. He seldom indulges in figurative language ; 
but when he does, his comparisons betray his habits of 
close observation. He dresses in a careless but by no 
means slovenly manner. Though his uniform conforms 
to army regulations in cut and trimmings, it is often, like 
that of Sherman, worn threadbare. He never wears any 
article which attracts attention by its oddity, except, in- 
deed, the three stars which indicate his rank. His ward- 
robe, when campaigning, is generally very scant, while 
his head-quarter train is often the smallest in the army. 
For several months of the war he lived in a log hut of 
unpretending dimensions on the James Eiver, sleeping 
on a common camp-cot, and eating at a table common to 
all his staff, plainly furnished with good roast beef, pork 
and beans, " hard-tack," and coffee. It is related of the 
general that when the march to the rear of Vicksburg 
began, he announced to his army the necessity of " mov- 
ing light" — 2. e., without extra baggage. He set an ex- 
ample by sending to the rear all his baggage except a 
green brier-root pipe, a tooth-brush, and a horn pocket- 
comb. The story of his appearance in the Senate Cham- 



116 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ber in February, 1865, is still fresh in the minds of the 
public. He had no sooner left the hall, after paying his 
respects to the senators, than one of the Democratic mem- 
bers rose and asked the consideration of the Senate upon 
what he termed the evident and gross mistake which had 
been made in appointing Grant a lieutenant general, and 
declared it to be his opinion that " there was not a sec- 
ond lieutenant of the Home Guard of his state who did 
not 'cut a bigger swell' than this man who had just left 
their presence !" 

The general is not lacking in self-esteem. He very 
naturally desires to be popular, likes to be well spoken 
of, but succeeds better than Sherman in concealing what 
vanity he possesses. He often excites admiration by the 
modesty of actions which in others would be considered 
exceedingly immodest ; as, witness the quiet manner in 
which he accepted a present of a hundred thousand dol- 
lars from the citizens of New York. 

Those who are disposed, like himself, to be fatalists, 
may imagine in the significance of Grant's surname, and 
the manner in which he obtained his baptismal name, 
encouraging omens of his success and that of the cause 
in which he is engaged. The surname Grant (derived 
from the French word grande^ great, or valorous) is that 
of a Scottish clan, whose motto, as given in Burke's "En- 
cyclopaedia of Heraldry," appears to have been adopted 
by General Grant. It is as follows: ^^ Stand fast, stand 
firm, stand surey The slogan of the clan was " Stand 
fast, Craigellachie." I believe there is no doubt that 
General Grant is of Scotch descent, and from the Grants 
and Duffs of Aberdeenshire. One of his aids, and a dis- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 117 

tant relation, Colonel Duff, was born at Duff House, 
"in the shadow," of which Mr. James Gordon Bennett, 
who was the first to appreciate and proclaim Grant's 
ability, records that he also was born. The general's 
proper christian name received at baptism was Hiram 
Ulysses ; but on entering West Point he received, by the 
mistake of the person who nominated him, the name of 
Ulysses Simpson, which, abbreviated, gives the same in- 
itials as those used to indicate the government of which 
he is the servant. " United States Grant" is an appella- 
tion much more common than Ulysses S. Grant; while 
the patriotic friends of the general have given this title 
several facetious variations, such as "Uncle Sam," "Un- 
conditional Surrender," and "United we Stand Grant." 

The confidence of the fatalist is not necessary to cour- 
age. There is a courage superior to the mere indiffer- 
ence to danger, and this quality Grant possesses to the 
fullest degree. Sherman calls him one of the bravest 
men he ever saw. His coolness and his clear-headedness 
under danger and amid excitement is remarkable, and is 
superior to that of Thomas, who, next to Grant, is the 
coolest and most clearly administrative man under fire 
now in the army. During the battles of Chattanooga 
Grant and Thomas established their head - quarters on 
" Orchard Knoll," immediately in the rear of the centre 
of the field, and from which they could have a full and 
close view of the column which was to make the assault 
on the rebel centre. From the moment the signal for the 
attack was sounded, the scene was of the most exciting 
character ; but during that important half hour in which 
the victory trembled in the balance, Grant and Thomas 



118 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

remained passive, Gool, and observant. They were stand- 
ing together when the assaulting column had reached 
half way to the summit of Missionary llidgo, when a por- 
tion of it was momentarily brought to a halt, and when 
the stream of wounded retiring down the hill made the 
line look ragged and weak. At this moment Thomas 
turned to Grant and said, with a slight hesitation, which 
betrayed the emotions which raged witliin him, 

"General, I — I'm afraid they won't get up." 

Grant, continuing to look steadily at the colunm, hes- 
itated half a minute before answering; then taking the 
cigar he was smoking between his fingers, he said, as he 
brushed away the ashes, 

" Oh, give 'em time^ general," and then as coolly re- 
turned his cigar to his mouth. 

Fifteen minutes later I met him on the summit of the 
hill, riding along with head uncovered, receiving the 
plaudits of the men who had won, but who had not yet 
secured the victory. The rebel centre had been broken, 
but the right wing, which had just repulsed Sherman, was 
yet intact, and, turning about face, attacked the troops 
which had carried the centre of their line. Our lino was 
much broken, and the troops excited to such a degree at 
the victory they had gained that they had become almost 
uncontrollable, and on the appearance of General Grant, 
who, following in the wake of the advancing columns, 
had appeared in their midst on the summit as the white- 
plumed helmet of Henry lY. had appeared at Ivry, the 
men gathered around him shouting and hurraing, grasp- 
ing his hand and embracing liis logs. But, while coolly 
receiving these demonstrations of alfection and delight, 



DISTINGUISHED (llONKUALS. 119 

Grunt was not blind to the danger, and was using the 
necessary cflbrts to get bis troops in readiness ibr tin; 
expected attack, whicli, but for his precaution, ] am sat- 
isfied would have badly damaged us. Wa conveyed his 
fears intuitively, as it wen;, to his staff, and each one ex- 
erted himself to get General 'J'urchin's brigade into })osi- 
tion as ordered by Grant. Mingling in the very thick- 
est of what now became the hottest fire of the day, they 
urged forward the troops, and personally gave directions 
for their disposal. Turchin, finding some men moving a 
piece of artillery to the rear in his way, raved and swo£c 
in broken English until he had got his men up to the 
works, and Lieutenant 'JVirner as heartily curs(;d the fel- 
lows who were retiring the gun, and while doing so got 
seriously wounded. General Meigs, quarter-master gen- 
eral, busied liimself in preparing friction primers for the 
c:iptured guns whicli General Grant was ordering into 
position, but got so excited over the great victory gained 
that he gave the task up in despair to Captain lioss, of 
General Grant's staff. General Turchin puslied forward 
his troops, and no sooner had they appeared in line of 
battle in the fort, than suddenly the battle ceased and 
was over. As if with one accord, the rebels c(;ased to 
struggle. They broke in utter and total confusion, and 
rushed down the hill. Volley after volley followed them 
as they fled, but tlujy did not halt. On they rushed, 
struggling and striving, reckless of all now save safety. 

During the siege of Vicksburg Grant personally super- 
intended the mounting of a number of Columbiads on a 
part of his lino. While the men were cutting the em- 
brasures in the woiks ho stood upon the epaulement, 



120 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

and, though the rebels made a "mark of him for their bul- 
lets, very composedly whittled a rail until the guns were 
placed to suit him. 

Whittling and smoking are among Grrant's favorite oc- 
cupations. He is a true Yankee in these respects. It is 
recorded of him that, during the battles of the Wilder- 
ness, he was engaged in whittling the bark of a tree under 
which his head-quarters were established ; and on all oc- 
casions, great and small, he smokes. He is a more invet- 
erate smoker than either Sherman or Rosecrans, but he 
smokes in a different style and for a different effect. 
Both Sherman and Rosecrans take to tobacco as a stimu- 
lant to their nervous organizations. Grant smokes with 
the listless, absorbed, and satisfied air of an opium-smok- 
er, his mind and body being soothed into repose rather 
than excited by the effect of the weed. Neither Sher- 
man nor Rosecrans are neat smokers, the velvet breast- 
facing of their coats and their shirt - bosoms being gen- 
erally soiled. Grant, on the contrary, is very neat, and 
smokes only the best of cigars. He smokes almost with- 
out cessation, and is never at ease when employed at any 
thing which forbids smoking as an accompaniment. Dur- 
ing the famous interview with Pemberton before Vicks- 
burg he smoked with his usual composure. " We par- 
don General Grant for smoking a cigar as he entered the 
smouldering ruins of the town of Vicksburg," said a rebel 
paper after the surrender. "A little stage effect," it add- 
ed, "is admirable in great captains." But Grant never 
smokes dramatically. His cigar is a necessary part of 
himself, and is neither assumed nor abandoned for state 
occasions. He has been known to forgetfully smoke at 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 121 

review's, and has frequently been brought to a halt and 
notified by sentinels or guards over commissary stores, 
"No smoking allowed here, sir." On entering the Sen- 
ate Chamber to be presented to the Senate, he had to bo 
requested to leave his cigar outside. 

Sherman's errratic disposition caused him to be sus- 
pected of lunacy. Grant's imperturbation and his dull- 
ness of expression, added to exaggerated tales of his ex- 
cessive use of Strong tobacco as an opiate, was the origin 
of the story which prevailed at one time to the effect that 
he drank to excess. In early life he may have indulged 
in occasional sprees, but he does not drink now at all. 
Swearing is not a habit with him, and his phlegmatic 
temperament is seldom so ruffled as to cause him to in- 
dulge in an oath. He seldom jokes, and rarely laughs. 
His great " weakness" is Alexandrian, and consists in his 
love for fine horses. When quite a boy he was remark- 
able for tact in managing horses, " breaking" them with 
astonishing ease. When he was only fifteen years old 
persons came to him from a great distance to have him 
teach their horses to pace. This is not a great and ex- 
clusive quality of the man, however, as it is well known 
that thousands of negroes on Southern plantations were 
noted for the same knack or tact. It was doubtless the 
result of the innate love of the boy for horses, a love now 
as strong in the man and the general. He is said to be 
the best rider in the army. 

Grant's undemonstrative manner has nothing of the re- 
pulsive about it. He has won and retained many warm 
friends. The friendship between him and Sherman has 
become historical, and is often quoted as in agreeable 

F 



122 PEESONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

contrast to the numerous bitter and disgraceful jealousies 
which have too often been made public, but which exist 
in the army to an extent not suspected by those who 
have no intimate acquaintance with its secret history. 
There is much of romance in the story of Grant and 
Sherman's friendship. It began in 1862, and has ever 
since continued to grow in strength. When the armies 
of Halleck were lying — literally so, indeed — before Cor- 
inth, Grant was, to all appearance, shelved in disgrace. 
He was second in command, but to be second in com- 
mand then was to be the "fifth wheel to the coach." 
Grant was much chagrined at his position, and felt in ten- 
fold degree each petty indignity which Halleck heaped 
upon him. One day General Sherman, who commanded 
one of the divisions of the wing under the command of 
General George H. Thomas, went to General Grant's 
quarters, bolted with his usual abruptness into his tent 
— they didn't stand on ceremony in the field — and found 
the general actually weeping with vexation. Shermq,n 
asked the cause, and, for the first time, Grant recounted 
the indignities which he had endured, the troubles he 
had encountered, and the false position in which he had 
been placed before the country. 

"The truth is, Sherman," he said, "I am not wanted. 
The country has no use for me, and I am about to resign 
and go home." • 

" No you are not," returned Sherman, impatiently ; 
"you are going to do nothing of the sort. The country 
does need you, and you must stay here, bear these petty 
insults, and do your duty." 

He gave Grant no time for argument, compelled him, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 123 

in a measure, to stay, cheered him up and kept him in 
the field until the appointment of Halleck, as command- 
er-in-chief, left the command in the West vacant, and 
Grant again came into power. 

Years afterward, at the close of the war, Sherman, re- 
turning from his march through the Carolinas, having 
just received the surrender of Joe Johnston, found him- 
self placed in a false light before the country by this 
same man Halleck. When he reached Washington City 
he was boiling over with rage at the indignity which 
Halleck had placed upon him by telegraphing that he 
had directed his troops to move without reference to 
Sherman's truce or orders, and his naturally bad temper 
became threateningly violent and uncontrollable. He 
denounced Halleck in unmeasured terms, and, had the 
latter been in Washington, a personal collision might have 
occurred. But, before the two could meet, Grant saw 
Sherman, and the scene enacted in the tent before Cor- 
inth three years before was re-enacted, save that the 
parts were changed. Grant appeared as the peacemaker, 
and as positively, though in a very different manner, ad- 
vised Sherman to ignore Halleck and frown him down. 
Sherman was wise enough to take the advice, and the 
"great marplot" will make his chief appearance in his- 
tory as one whom these men could afford to ignore. 

Grant has always been generous to his subordinates. 
His careful consideration of the interests of his staff and 
general officers is proverbial, while his generous treat- 
ment of inefficient officers, whom he has been compelled 
to relieve, is well known. In the first action in which 
he commanded, the battle of Belmont, his troops at first 



124 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

gained an advantage over the rebels. Tliey began to plun- 
der the rebel camp in spite of all that the general could 
do to stop them. At last Grant, who knew that Confed- 
erate re-enforcements were coming up, got some of his 
friends to set fire to the camp, so as to step the plunder- 
ing. Then he got his troops together as well as he could, 
and retreated ; but, in the mean time, the Confederate re- 
en foi'cements came up, attacked, and defeated him. There 
were five ct)lonels under Grant who had not by any means 
supi)orted him cfliciently in his attempts to stop the plun- 
dering and collect his troops. Grant expected to be de- 
prived of his command on account of the defeat, and one 
of the colonels, fearful of the same fate, called to see him 
about the prospect. He gave him no satisfaction, but, 
on the colonel's departure, turned to a friend and said, 
"Colonel is afraid 1 will n>port his bad conduct." 

"Why do you not?" asked his friend; "he and oth- 
ers are to blame for not carrying out your orders." 

" Why," said the generous Grant, " these officers had 
never been under fire before ; they did not know how 
serious an affair it was; they have had a lesson which 
they will not forget. I will answer for it they will never 
make the same mistake again. I can see by the wa}' 
they behaved in the subsequent action that they are of 
the right stuff, and it is better that I should lose my com- 
mand, if that must be, than the country should lose the 
services of live such officers when good men are scarce." 
Grant did not lose his command, and three out of the 
five officers afterward greatly distinguished themselves. 

The impression prevails to some extent among persons 
unacquainted with Grant in the field, the only place where 



DlSTINGUlSlIEi) GENERALS. 125 

lie shows to great advantage, that he owes all his success 
to Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, and his other chief sub- 
ordinates. The fact is, the indebtedness is on the part 
of the subordinates. Gi'ant owes his reputation to them 
just as ever schoolmaster owes his to the ability display- 
ed by his scholars ; but the indebtedness of the pupil to 
the tutor who educates his mind and directs his talent is . 
not by any means repaid by this reflected credit. Shcr-/.^ 
Bftflft was a complete failure; he was looked upon, in- ^-, 
deed, as a lunatic, until Grant saw what he was capable ^ 

of, and directed his great abilities into tlic pro|)er chan- 
nel. Slieridau met with an uninterrupted series of de- 
feats until Grant singled him out for his cavalry com- 
mander, and then the " belligerent cadet" met with an 
uninterrupted series of victories. Wilson stands simi- 
larly indebted; and Meade's greatest successes were ob- 
tained under Grant's direction. 

It is not only with such men as Sherman, Shciidan, 
Logan, Howard, and others, with wlunn he bears the most 
intimate relations, but with his whole army, that Grant is 
a well-beloved leader. He has gained the univeisal ad- 
miration of his men by no clap-trap dis|)lay or funiliaiity 
at the expense of discipline, but by a constant and watch- 
ful care for their interest. It is a boast in the Army of 
the Tennessee, which Grant commanded in' person for 
nearly three years, that the men never wanted for fo(jd ; 
Grant's commissary stores were always well filled. lie 
was always careful to protect his men from the imposi- 
tion of sutlers and army speculators, generally by fixing 
the prices of all articles sold in his department; and he 
cut red tape for the benefit of the private soldier with a 
remorseless hand. 



126 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

When sitting for their photographs Grant and Sher- 
man have dispensed with their cigars, and the conse- 
quence is an imperfect picture. None of the many art- 
ists who have painted them in oil have had the independ- 
ence to supply the deficiency of the photographs, and 
add the cigar, which is aniccossary accompaniment of the 
men, and which must be an important feature of every 
pen-picture which will be made of them. The addition 
of the cigar would doubtless detract from the dignity of 
the picture, but it should be remembered that artists 
paint as well for posterity as for the present generation. 
History will preserve in its picture of Grant his peculiari- 
ties, and, among others, the fact that he was an inveterate 
smoker. Why should not the artists preserve such a pe- 
culiarity as this, as well as the outlines of his figure and 
expression of his face? Is it any more important for 
posterity to know that his. eyes were blue than that .he 
smoked incessantly ? 

Grant is not so tall as Sherman nor so heavy as Thomas. 
Ilis short stature would have made it difiicult for him to 
enlist in the British army. He is but an inch above the 
minimum standard of officers of our army, but, being 
straight and somewhat spare, he has the appearance of 
being above medium height. Sheridan and Logan are 
the only m.njor generals in our army who are shorter in 
figure than Grant. His forehead is high and square. 
His hair was originally a dark brown, but at fortj^'-three, 
his present age, it is fast becoming sprinkled with iron- 
gray. His eyes are sharp and expressive, though small, 
peering out from under his overarching brow with great 
brilliancy. His nose is aquiline. His mouth is small, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 127 

and ho lias a liabit of closely compi-cssing liis li])s. His 
chin and checks arc covered with a heavy beard, which 
he never sliaves, but keeps closely cropped or trimmed. 

Though the war in which he has won his reputation is 
now ended, the future has still much to do in establish- 
ing the position which Grant has to hold in history. To- 
day he enjoys tlie confidence of his countrymen to a de- 
gree unknown to military leaders during the war. If 
ultimately successful in the end — if he directs his course 
through the mazes of the political campaign which has 
followed hard upon the close of the war as well as he has 
his military career, posterity will delight, and will find 
little difficulty, in tracing out a comparison between his 
character and that of the country's first great leader. 
This it is hardly proper for the present age to do; and 
such a comparison, if made in detail, would doubtless 
shock the modesty of General Grant more than it would 
the nation's sense of propriety ; but if consistent in char- 
acter and success to the end, the historian of the future 
will not be content to draw simply the comparison which 
I have imperfectly outlined, but will liken him to one 
who in every respect was greater than the Sherman or 
Thomas to whom, combined as in one man, I have com- 
pared him. But, whether successful to the end or not, 
if he remains, as at present, aloof from politics and far 
above partisanism, General Grant, like Washington, will 
live forever in the memories of his countrymen as a 
good and honest man. 



128 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 



CHAPTEE IV. 

SHERIDAN AS A CAVALRYMAN, 

Very few wars of as short duration as was that of the 
late Southern rebellion produced as many as three great 
and original military leaders of the calibre of Sherman, 
Thomas, and Grant. The ancients could boast of but one 
Alexander, one Csesar, one Hannibal to an era; mod- 
ern times of but one Frederick, one Suwarrow, one Na- 
poleon to an age. It took half a century of constant and 
almost universal revolution to produce Napoleon and his 
prodigies. Only this country, of all the universe, can to- 
day boast of possessing a general universally conceded to 
be a great military genius, and it has more than one. 
The rebellion, which at its outset boasted of commanding 
nearly all the military talent of the country, produced in 
the end only one really great soldier — Joseph E, John- 
ston ; all the rest were mediocre — hardly respectable, in- 
deed, if Stonewall Jackson, who was a fair, though un- 
equal counterpart to Sherman, be excepted. The loyal 
cause, which was thought to be weak in its leadership, 
produced in the end all the really able statesmen of the 
revolution, and, with the two exceptions noted, all the 
great military leaders. These latter are not confined 
to the three whom I have already sketched. Many of 
Grant's subordinates developed a genius for war of no 




IMIILll- IIKNRV SIIEPJIIAN. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 131 

ordinary quality, and won on hard-fought fields fame and 
reward as successful leaders. No general was ever sec- 
onded by such numbers of able lieutenants, not even Na- 
poleon ; and nearly all of Grant's chief subordinates won 
splendid reputations for skill, energy, and daring, the 
three attributes of greatness accompanying and necessary 
to success. When one looks at the developments of the 
war in this respect, he may well accept without question 
Grant's declaration, lately made in his usual modest style, 
that the country could readily have found another than 
himself to bring about the end of the war successfully. 

Philip Henry Sheridan, who is one of the most noted 
and noteworthy of these subordinates of Grant, must al- 
ways be looked upon as one of the miracles of war, not 
so much from the result as the manner of his achieve- 
ments. If he were neither a great strategist, like Sher- 
man, nor a great tactician, like Thomas, nor both, like 
Grant, he would still be a successful leader, I have en- 
deavored to show in the preceding chapters that the lieu- 
tenant general is, as a military leader, complete in him- 
self, possessing all the attributes of generalship; while 
Sherman, embodying nervous intellectual force, and 
Thomas, representing physical power, are constituted by 
nature, as well as by the choice of Grant, to be his chief 
subordinate commanders. Sheridan, in character, is like 
neither of the others, but is an original genius, and a lead- 
er not unworthy to rank with Sherman and Thomas, or 
to hol^j^osition as the third subordinate commander of 
General Grant. He may be said to be an Inspiration 
rather than a General, accomplishing his work as much, 
not to say more, by the inspiriting force of his courage and 



182 PERSONAL EECOLLECTIONS OF 

example as by the rules of war. lie supplies to the army 
the passion and fire which is smothered in Grant and 
Thomas, and imperfectly developed in Sherman. He ren- 
ders an army invincible more by the impartation to it of 
his own courage and fire than by any system of organi- 
zation, and appears to accomplish by this imparted en- 
thusiasm all that results under the leadership of the oth- 
ers from discipline. When the future historian sums up 
Sheridan's character, with all the facts yet hidden, as they 
must be for some years to come, laid profusely before 
him, he will hardly rank Sheridan with those who have 
carefully and wisely planned. He belongs rather to that 
class of our officers who have, by skillful and bold exe- 
cution, won the distinctive classification of" fighting gen- 
erals." He can not be said to have developed any stra- 
tegic genius, and his tactics have been of a strange and 
rather eccentric character, but it can not be denied that, 
in every battle in which he has been prominently en- 
gaged, he has given brilliant examples of his courage, 
vigor, and skill as a quick, dashing, and stubborn figliter. 
He is pre-eminently a "fighting general." He claims to 
be nothing else, and can afford to rest his claim on his 
deeds during the rebellion. His entire career in private 
and public has shown him to be impetuous, passionate, 
bold, and stubborn. He was born a belligerent. His 
natural element is amid the smoke, his natural position 
in the front line of battle. He fights vigorously and 
roughly, and when the tide of battle flows and e^|j|is most 
doubtingly he holds on most grimly. In private life his 
great energy is a little curt, and his fiery temper a little 
too quick, but his abruptness and belligerency are too 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 133 

lionest and natural to excite condemnation ; wliilc Lis 
manner, when not excited or opposed, is distinguished by- 
great courtesy, modesty, and pleasantry. In battle the 
wildest and most impetuous of warriors, in peace he is 
the "mildest mannered man" that ever scuttled canal- 
boats on the James or crossed sabres with a rebel. He 
is as impetuous as Sherman and as persistent as Thomas. 
He is cool and collected in the minor matters over which 
Sherman grows nervous, and fiery and bold in great 
dangers in which Sherman grows coolest and calmest. 
Sherman's energy is that of the brain, inspired; Sheri- 
dan's that of the blood, inflamed. In history Sheridan! 
will stand forth as a type — a representative leader, even 
more boldly, if not more prominently, than Sherman, or 
Thomas, or even Grant. His was a specialty — he was 
great in a peculiar line of duty ; history and romance 
will unite to make him the type of the " modern cava- 
lier," and he will enjoy, in some degree, the semi-mythic- 
al existence which all representative men hold in history. 
Sheridan is descended from the same class of the north 
of Ireland emigrants which produced Andrew Jackson 
and Andrew Johnson, save that the parents of the lat- 
ter were Protestants, while those of Sheridan were Cath- 
olics. Having settled, on their arrival in this country, in 
a more populous, thriving, educated, and free district, 
Ohio, they were enabled to offer their son better educa- 
tional advantages than were the parents of Jackson and 
Johnson, who had settled in the less civilized district of 
North Carolina, and hence young Sheridan became pos- 
sessed of a good common-school education in his native 
place, Perry County, Ohio, where he was born in 1831. 
/ 



134 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Any number of statements have been made as to Sheri- 
dan's birthplace. Some writers have declared it to be 
Boston, while still others have said it was Somerset, Ohio. 
He was born, according to his own statement, near the 
town of Somerset, in Perry County, Ohio, on the 6th of 
September in the year named. The necessities of his 
family early forced him to manual labor, while his own 
inclination led him to study. He was a quick though 
somewhat careless student, while his great animal spirits 
made him early a rather wild and belligerent youth, fond 
of a-boyish frolic and a trick, always lively and always 
generous, sometimes thoughtless in wounding the feel- 
ings of others, but quick to generously heal when in fault. 
When quite young, Sheridan was variously employed in 
his native county in doing odd " chores," among others 
that of driving a water-cart about the streets of Somerset, 
Ohio, and in sprinkling the dusty thoroughfares of that 
old-fashioned town. When about twelve 3'^ears of age he 
entered the employment of a Mr. John Talbot, in Somer- 
set, Ohio. Talbot was an old gentleman who kept a 
country store in which was sold every thing useful and 
ornamental, embracing dry goods and groceries, confec- 
tionery and hardware, from rat-traps to plows, and from 
woolen socks to readj^-made overcoats, and Sheridan 
found himself in a position to learn a little of every thing 
— every thing, at least, in the country grocery line. Mr. 
Talbot was a man who delighted in being thought, if not 
by others, at least by himself, a patron of youth, and he 
patronized young Sheridan, and was, as he afterward de- 
clared,' " a friend to him when a friend was every thing." 
When Sheridan grew older and famous, Talbot still con- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. V65 

tinned to patronize him, and once said, alluding to Lis 
former prot6g6, that, on taking him into his service, he 
"perceived that he was smart and active, and took some 
pains to instruct him not only in selling goods, etc., for 
that," he adds, with great candor, " was our duty and in- 
terest," but when a leisure moment offered he taught 
him to improve his " slight knowledge of writing, arith- 
metic, pronunciation," etc. Young Sheridan did not re- 
main long with Mr. Talbot, but gave up his service for 
that of a gentleman named Henry Dittoe, in the same 
trade and in the same town as that of Mr. Talbot. While 
still here he attracted the attention of the Hon. Thomas 
Eitchey, then member of Congress from the Congres- 
sional district in which Perry County was located, and, 
owing to the influence of an elder brother and the favor- 
able impression he made upon Mr. Ritchey, Sheridan ob- 
tained, very unexpectedly to him, the appointment of 
cadet to the West Point Military Academy. This was 
immediately after the close of the Mexican War, when it 
was a very difficult matter to obtain appointments for 
others than the sons and orphans of officers who had 
fallen in the war. 

He therefore got into West Point pretty much as Mr. 
Lincoln used to say General Rosecrans won battles, "by 
the skin of his teeth." The fact is, he got out of the 
Academy with the honors of graduation in pretty much 
the same way. The characteristics which had distin- 
guished him as a boy in his native town soon made him 
noted at West Point as the " best-natured and most bel- 
ligerent cadet" in the Academy. In fact, his belligerent 
disposition retarded his advancement in youth and as a 



186 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

cadet as much as it has since advanced him. He fought 
so much at West Point, was so unruly, and "so full of 
deviltry," that, despite his fine scholarly attainments, the 
future great cavalryman graduated so low down in his 
class that he could only be commissioned in the lowest 
arm of the service instead of the highest, in which he has 
since so distinguished himself. As it was, he was a year 
longer in his course than nine tenths of his classmates. 
He entered in 1848, and should have graduated in 1852, 
but went over until the next year. I have been told 
that, at this late day, he required only " five points" more 
to his number of "black marks" to exclude him from the 
honors of graduation ; and if he had not, toward the close 
of the session, by skillful management and unusual con- 
trol over his quick temper, won the good opinion of one 
or two of his tutors, the future major general would have 
been forced to leave the Academy as he had entered it, 
instead of having the brevet of second lieutenant of in- 
fantry in his pocket. One of his instructors, who had 
admired his generous character, employed the argument 
that belligerency was not a fault in a soldier, and this is 
said to have done much in securing him the needed ap- 
proval of the West Point staff of instructors and the 
honors of graduation. The argument was too powerful 
to be resisted by educated soldiers, and Sheridan was 
consequently sent forth fully authorized to be as great a 
belligerent in time of war as he desired. 

Sheridan's class at West Point produced very few 
remarkable men. The three ablest of his classmates, 
McPherson, Sill, and Terrill, perished during the rebel- 
lion. McPherson, who graduated at the head of the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. io7 

class, was a brilliant student, an admirable engineer, but 
never a great leader. The student predominated in his 
organization, and he lacked in decision and nerve. He 
rose very high in rank in the regular army, but it was 
owing less to his available talents and practicability than 
to the care of Grant and Sherman, with whom he was a 
great favorite. Terrill made a fine soldier as an artil- 
lerist, and won well-deserved renown and promotion by 
his admirable handling of his battery at Shiloh. He was 
very ambitious of advancement. I was present at his 
death at Perryvillc. His brigade was pushed by Gen- 
eral McCook, the corps commander, into a forest, in which 
the enemy surprised and defeated his troops, who were 
raw recruits, scattering them in every direction. Terrill's 
horse was shot under him, and, being thus dismounted, 
and left without a command, he turned — the ruling pas- 
sion strong in death — to the artillery, and assumed com- 
mand of a couple of batteries fighting in General Rous- 
seau's line. Thus returned to the arm of the service for 
which education and inclination adapted him, he did mag- 
nificent service. While thus engaged, and while in the 
act of sighting a gun of Bush's Indiana battery, he was 
mortally wounded, and died a few hours afterward, with 
a message to his wife unfinished on his lips. Joshua W. 
Sill, who was, perhaps, the superior man of the class of 
1853, fell in a similar manner at Stone River. The ene- 
my had thrown himself upon Sheridan with great en- 
ergy, and succeeded in forcing him to retire. Sill was 
one of Sheridan's brigade commanders, and in aiding the 
general to rally the retiring troops, and in leading them 
to a charge, he was shot and instantly killed as the ene- 



138 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

my were temporarily repulsed. Sill was a practical man, 
of great resources, energy, and courage, small of stature, 
and compactly built. He was beloved and admired in 
the army for his great courtesy, kindness, and good sense. 
There were also in Sheridan's class others who became 
generals in the volunteer service during the late rebel- 
lion. William Sooy Smith commanded infantry during 
the greater part of the war, but conducted the cavalry 
expedition from Memphis in 1863, intended to co-operate 
with Sherman in Mississippi, but miserably failed. E. 0. 
Tyler and B. F. Chamberlain were well known for serv- 
ices in the Potomac Army. General John M. Schofield 
attained to some prominence during the war, although 
he had more to do with combating the prejudice which 
existed against him in the War Office and the army than 
in fighting the rebels. William R. Boggs, who graduated 
fourth in Sheridan's class, failed as a rebel brigadier, and 
at the close of the war turned his attention, like Lee, to 
teaching young ideas how to shoot. John R. Chamblis, 
H. H, Walker, and John S. Bowen, who were also rebels, 
were failures. Hood was the only success among the 
seceding members of the class. He owed his rapid pro- 
motion from colonel to lieutenant general in the rebel 
army to something of the same qualities which won his 
promotion for Sheridan. Hood was not less bold and 
impetuous than Sheridan, but he lacked Sheridan's sound 
sense and quick judgment, and doubtless would not have 
made the rapid progress he did but for the aid and friend- 
ship of Jeff. Davis. Sheridan and Hood met in battle but 
once during the rebellion. It was at Chickamauga, and 
that encounter cost Hood his leg, although Sheridan was 



DISTINGUISHED GENEKALS. 139 

defeated. Hood commanded a division of Longstreet's 
corps, Sheridan one of McCook'a divisions. 

Eight years of almost profound peace followed Sheri- 
dan's graduation, and little opportunity oflered for ad- 
vancement. In May and June, 1855, Sheridan, then pro- 
moted to be a lieutenant, was in command Of Fort Wood, 
New York Harbor, but in the July following he was or- 
dered to San Francisco in charge of a body of recruits. 
On arriving there he was detailed to command an escort 
of cavalry intended for the protection and assistance of 
Lieutenant Williamson and the party engaged in the sur- 
vey of the proposed branch of the Pacific Eailroad from 
San Francisco to Columbia Eivcr, Oregon. Sheridan 
succeeded shortly after in getting himself detached from 
this command and ordered to join a battalion of dragoons 
under Major Raine, of the Fourth Infantry, then on an 
expedition against the Yakima Indians, and expecting 
active service and severe warfare. In this expedition he 
distinguished himself by gallantry at the " Battle of the 
Cascades" of the Columbia River (April 28, 1856). Al- 
though his action on the occasion is not described, it is 
not diflicult to imagine it as of the same character as the 
later deeds of daring which have distinguished him. He 
was rewarded for his gallantry by being placed in com- 
mand of the Indian Reservation of the Coast Range. 
Here he was engaged for a year in keeping the Con- 
quillo Indians on Yakima Bay in proper subjection, and 
in building the military post and fort at Yamhill. 

From this distant post he was recalled in 1861 to find 
himself promoted, by the resignation of large numbers of 
the Southern officers of the army, to a captaincy in what 



140 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

was then Sherman's regiment, the Thirteenth Infantry. 
He was ordered to join his regiment at Jefferson Bar- 
racks, and thus became attached to the Trans-Mississippi, 
or Army of the Southwest, in which he saw his first serv- 
ice in the present war. Although this army had gone 
through a campaign under Lyon, the preparations for 
another under Fremont, and was then under command 
of Halleck, it was so far from being organized that Sheri- 
dan could find no active duty, and was placed upon a 
military commission to inquire into certain alleged ir- 
regularities of the Fremont administration of Missouri 
affairs. About that time General Curtis, who had as- 
sumed command of the troops in the field, was ready to 
begin an active campaign, and Sheridan was appointed 
acting chief quarter-master, with which the duties of com- 
missary were at that time blended. He was out of place 
and felt it, and his success as a quarter-master was very 
indifferent indeed. He used to laugh and say many 
months after that providing " hard-tack and sow-belly," 
as the soldiers called the crackers and pork which form- 
ed the chief ingredients of their rations, was not exactly 
in his line; and he was very fond of relating, in connec- 
tion with the remark, his first experience in restricting 
the contraband traffic in salt with the rebels. As chief 
quarter - master, it was his duty to take such steps as 
would not only provide for his own troops, but deprive 
the rebels of contraband supplies. Hearing that Price, 
then at Springfield, was suffering for salt, he employed 
every means to stop the export of that article beyond 
our lines ; and, congratulating himself on his success, 
used often to say, with a chuckle, that " the rebels were 



, DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 1-il 

actually starving for salt." When the advance of the 
army took place, and Price was hastily driven out of 
Springfield, the only article left behind was, much to 
Sheridan's disgust, an immense quantity of salt which 
had been smuggled through our lines. He ever after- 
ward professed himself disgusted with his 'quarter-mas- 
tership, and fortunately soon after got himself under ar- 
rest and sent to the rear. 

Officers generally look upon arrests as misfortunes. 
Sheridan's arrest was the turning-point in his fortunes, 
since it placed him, after a brief delay, on the staff of a 
rising major general and in the line of promotion. The 
circumstances of his arrest are not without interest, as 
showing one or two of his characteristics. Like many 
regular officers of the army as organized in 1861, Sheri- 
dan "was in favor of carrying on the war by striking hard 
blows at the organized armies of the rebels, and gener- 
ously providing for the people, who, while remaining at 
home, under United States protection, as non - comba- 
tants, still surreptitiously furnished men and material to 
the rebels. It is difficult to conceive the "Ravager of 
the Shenandoah Valley" entertaining any of these false 
notions of sympathy, yet such were Sheridan's feelings 
at the time, so strict a stickler was he for military disci- 
pline. He has overcome this too delicate and nice con- 
sideration for the interests of rebel aiders and abettors, 
and, like the country, has been educated by war in the 
belief that treason is to be fought with fire. Feeling thus 
during the Pea Ridge campaign, Sheridan was particular- 
ly disgusted with the ravages committed by a regiment 
of Kansas Jay-hawkers in General Blunt's division, and 



142 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

used often to denounce them in unmeasured terms. He 
was SO much embittered against the regiment and op- 
posed to their style of warfare, that when General Blunt 
ordered him to impress a large amount of provender 
from the citizens for the use of the army, he replied in 
any thing but decorous terms, declining to execute the 
order, and intimating in conclusion that he was not a Jay- 
hawker. General Blunt, of course, relieved him and pre- 
ferred charges against him. Sheridan was ordered to re- 
port to Ilalleck. The letter was forwarded as evidence 
against him, and fell into Ilallcck's hands. That officer, 
having a just appreciation of a good joke, laughed heart- 
ily over the letter; and, sharing Sheridan's prejudices 
against "jay- hawking" and "bummers" generally, he 
caused the charges to be withdrawn, and in May, 1862, 
ordered Sheridan to duty on his own staff as acting chief 
quarter-master. 

It is a singular fact that Sheridan was a protege and fa- 
vorite of both Halleck and Grant, who had not a thought, 
feeling, or interest in common. To have equally pleased 
Ilalleck, the theoretical, and Grant, the practical soldier 
— Halleck, the wily and polite lawyer, and Grant, the 
simple-minded, straightforward^ soldier — Halleck, who at- 
tempted to rise by arts, and Grant, who trusted solely to 
action for promotion, required very great qualities in a 
mind as young as Sheridan's. The secret of his success 
in pleasing both doubtless lies in the fact that he attempt- 
ed to please neither. Sheridan has been one of the most 
honest of our generals. There was nothing tricky about 
him ; his comrades all felt that he used no underhand in- 
fluence to rise. Yet to the friendship inspired in these 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 143 

two very opposite natures by his honest and straightfor- 
ward conduct Sheridan is doubtless somewhat indebted 
for his rapid advancement from a captaincy to a major 
generalcy in three years. When one reflects upon the 
rapidity of his promotion, the days of France under the 
empire appear to have come to us, and Bulwer's prepos- 
terous promotion of his hero in the pLay becomes highly 
probable, "Promotion is quick in the French army," 
said old Damas. Verily not more so than in the national 
army of the United States during the rebellion. 

General Ilalleck was at the time of this occurrence be- 
fore Corinth, and thither Sheridan repaired, to find him- 
self suddenly and unexpectedly transferred from the reg- 
ular to the volunteer service as colonel of the Second 
Michigan Cavalry, in place of Gordon Granger, who had 
been promoted, Halleck had, with an appreciation which 
he subsequently frequently displayed in organizing the 
United States armies, noticed Sheridan's qualities, and 
placed him in the branch of the service for which he was 
best qualified. But even Ilalleck did not fully appre- 
ciate the admirable qualities of his young protdge, and 
foiled, when intrusted shortly after with the absolute or- 
ganization of the armies, to advance him to the position 
for which the quicker appreciation of Grant afterward 
singled him out, after observing his conduct in one battle 
only. 

His promotion to colonel aroused the ambition of Sheri- 
dan, who had before modestly hoped to eventually be- 
come a major. He now had opportunities to distinguish 
himself, and immediately went to work to improve the 
opportunity, determined to win rank and fame before 



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(i 



146 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

and general good qualities brought him safely out of bis 
troubles. In the engagement at Booncsville his readi- 
ness to fight was evinced to Sheridan's satisfoction, while 
Sheridan's superior enduranee and enterprise were made 
apparent to the rebel at the same time. 

It was this success which made Sheridan a brigadier 
general. It has always been an unfortunate feature of 
our army organization that there is no provision for the 
promotion of the deserving in the branch of the service 
in which they have won distinction, and for which they 
have evinced high qualifications, A colonel of cavalry 
shows himself eminently deserving of promotion by his 
services in that branch, and he is promoted to be briga- 
dier general of infantry^ and not only taken from the line 
of the service for which he is best fitted, but, though pro- 
moted in rank, is sent to command an inferior arm of the 
service. By this fault of organization not only does the 
army lose the service of the person thus promoted out of- 
his sphere, but often the promotion becomes the ruin of 
the recipient, who may be totally unfitted for this new 
line of duty. There are numerous examples of this. 
Among several of these fiiilurcs, whicli have resulted from 
this cause, two of the most notable were of persons in 
Sheridan's own class. I have elsewhere already noticed 
how Terrill, who, as a captain of artillery, gained a great 
reputation for his successful handling of his battery at 
Shiloh, and who was promoted to be a brigadier general 
of infimtry, to utterly fail and throw away his young life 
in his chagrin and desperation. McPherson's success 
outside of the engineer corps was no greater. He gradu- 
ated at the head of his class, distinguished himself as an 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 147 

engineer, was promoted rapidly from captain to corps 
commander, only to find himself totally unfitted for such 
duty, and in time to waste, by his inadaptation to in- 
fantry and his lack of decision, the rich fruits of Sher- 
man's successful strategic march through Snake Creek 
Gap upon Resaca. 

Sheridan's fate was not exactly the reverse of this, for, 
when taken from the cavalry, for which he was eminent- 
ly fitted, and made brigadier general of infantry, his suc- 
cess at first was not encouraging; but under the various 
tests which these charges have proved to be, he was more 
uniformly successful than any officer I remember placed 
in the same position. I know, indeed, of no general offi- 
cer who was subjected to so many tests as Sheridan. He 
was alternately commanding cavalry and infantry, then 
both together, constantly changing from one line of op- 
erations to another, and thus being subjected to the study 
of new lines and new topography, besides being forced to 
meet and overcome the prejudices against new command- 
ers local to every army. In fact, Sheridan may be said 
to have begun his career anew thr^ several times, and 
his ultimate success in spite of these obstacles shows the 
superiority of his mettle. 

Immediately on his promotion Sheridan was placed in 
command in Kentucky of a division of raw troops, for 
the organization of which he was not so well fitted as for 
fighting them. The command was under General Nel- 
son. Shortly afterward Nelson was killed, and the re- 
organization of his army, and its incorporation with that 
of General Buell, placed Sheridan in command of a divis- 
ion of partly disciplined veteran troops. A short time 



148 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

subsequently the army was again reorganized by Eose- 
crans, and Sheridan was given a division and assigned to 
the corps of General A. McD. McCook. Sheridan's di- 
vision suffered defeat at Stone River and Chickamauga. 
But amid those disasters and defeats the fighting quali- 
ties of the "little cadet" found illustrations as brilliant, 
but not so familiar as those of his greater victories at 
Cedar Creek, Five Forks, 

Stone River was a battle in which the endurance of 
the soldiers rather than the generalship of their leaders 
gave us possession of a field in which the enemy retain- 
ed, until his abandonment of the field, the tactical and 
strategic advantage. Each corps, and even each divis- 
ion, "fought on its own hook;" there was no generalship, 
no plan, no purpose on our part. The official reports tell 
very elaborately of a grand plan, and how, despite the re- 
verses of the first day, it was carried out to brilliant and 
successful completion, but that plan was arranged after 
the battle was finished. There was no such plan before 
the battle, for, like all of Rosecrans's battles. Stone River 
was fought withou^any definite plan. Bragg was the 
tactician of Stone River. He assumed and held the of- 
fensive during the whole engagement, and our forces 
were kept continually on the defensive. It is a singular 
fact, that so ignorant was Rosecrans of the position of the 
enemy, so absolutely without a plan was he, that on the 
very morning of McCook's disastrous defeat he ordered 
General Crittenden to occupy the town which the enemy 
were covering in strong force, declaring that they had 
evacuated it. General T.J. Wood protested against the 
blind obedience which General Crittenden would have 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 

given to this command, and, pending the reference of the 
remonstrance to Kosecrans, McCook -was attacked and 
whipped. The soldiers fought the battle on our part, not 
the general commanding the army ; and it was Thomas, 
Rousseau, Sheridan, Negley, Wood, and Palmer, as lead- 
ers, who saved the day, and retrieved the disaster precipi- 
tated by McCook's incompetency, and Rosecrans's inca- 
pacity, from extreme nervousness, to direct a large column 
of troops. Sheridan's division was posted on the left of 
McCook's corps, which, being struck in flank and rear, 
was very quickly and unexpectedly doubled up and 
thrown back upon Sheridan's division, which was thus 
forced, while fighting a division- in its front, to turn and 
form a defensive crotchet to the whole army, thus being 
compelled to expose one or the other of its flanks. It 
was forced back by superior numbers until its line of 
battle described three sides of a square, and these being 
broken after a terrible resistance, it was forced to retreat 
through a dense forest of cedars, in which artillery could 
not be moved, to the line formed by the reserves under 
General Rousseau. While the rest of the corps had been 
rapidly driven, Sheridan's division fought for hours des- 
perately, losing all the brigade commanders, seventy oth- 
er officers, and nearly one third of the men killed and 
wounded. The other divisions of McCook's corps, under 
Jeff. C.Davis and R.W.Johnson, were never rallied until 
they reached Nashville, while Sheridan's fell back upon 
the line of reserves and fought for two days afterward. 
This result was entirely owing to the personal exertions, 
daring, and skill of Sheridan ; and his conflict formed 
such a brilliant episode of that badl}^ - managed battle, 



.150 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

and his abilities shone so prominently in contrast with 
the delinquencies of others, that he was at once made a 
major general. 

In the dark cedars at Stone Eiver he kept his men to- 
gether, when almost surrounded or entirely cut off, only 
by being at all times along the front line of battle with 
them; by well-directed encouragement to the deserving, 
and the blackest reproaches to the delinquents; by altern- 
ate appeals and curses, and a constant display of a daring 
which was inspiring, and in the presence of which no 
man dared betray himself a coward. 

" The history of the combat of those dark cedars will 
never be known," wrote the onlj^ historian who has as 
yet truly written of Stone River, Mr. W. S. Furay, of the 
Cincinnati Gazette, a young man of very extraordinary 
abilities, and the most conscientious of all the war cor- 
respondents whom I met in the army. " No man," he 
adds, "could see even the whole of his own regiment, 
and no one will ever be able to tell who they were that 
fought bravest, or they who proved recreant to their 
trust. It was left to Sheridan to stay the successful on- 
set of the foe. Never did a man labor more faithfully 
than he to perform his task, and never was leader sec- 
onded by more gallant soldiers. His division formed a 
kind of pivot, upon which the broken right wing turned 
in its flight, and its perilous condition can easily be im- 
agined when the flight of Davis's division left it with- 
out any protection from the triumphant enemy who now 
swarmed upon its front and right flank; but it fought un- 
til one fourth of its number lay bleeding and lying upon 
the field, and till both remaining brigade commanders, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 151 

Colonel Roberts and Shaefter, had met with the same fate 
as General Sill." 

When Sheridan had extricated his command from the 
forest and got in line with the reserves, he rode up to 
Rosecrans, and, pointing to the remnant of his division, 
said, 

" Here is all that is left of us, general. Oar cartridge- 
boxes contain nothing, and our guns are empty." 

The Tullahoma campaign, which followed that of Stone 
River, offered few opportunities for the display of any 
other quality of the soldier in Sheridan than that of en- 
ergy. The pursuit of Bragg, which formed the main feat- 
ure of that campaign, required rapid marching, but no 
fighting. After the expulsion of the rebels from Tulla- 
homa and Winchester the general pursuit was abandon- 
ed, as the enemy had reached the mountains, and only 
Sheridan's division and Stanley's cavalry received orders 
to pursue the enemy across the mountains to the Ten- 
nessee. Sheridan moved with great alacrity, hoping to 
reach the bridge over the Tennessee at Bridgeport in 
time to save it from destruction. He moved so rapidly 
that he reached the river before Stanley's cavalry, which 
had been ordered b}^ an indirect route through Hunts- 
ville. He succeeded in saving the greater part of the 
bridge. He used to tell with great glee that on reach- 
ing Bridgeport he found numbers of the rear-guard of 
Bragg's army sitting on the burned end of the bridge, and 
asking his advance on the opposite bank of the river if 
" they were part of Stanley's cavalry." The infantry 
had moved so rapidly in pursuit that the enemy had all 
the while mistaken them for cavalry. 



162 PERSONAL RKCOLLECTIONS OF 

Sheridan has since displayed the same energy in mov- 
ing, with better effect. The surrender of Lee was, with- 
out doubt, the effect of the admirable and vigorous exe- 
cution by Sheridan of Grant's plan of operations from 
Five Forks to Burkesville Junction. It will be remem- 
bered that Sheridan, by rapid movements, placed, his 
forces at Jettersville before Lee had reached Amelia 
Court-house, and thus cut off all retreat to Danville. Ilis 
dispatches relating to those operations partake of the 
vigor of the actual movements, and handsomely illustrate 
his enere;v. 

"I wish you were here 3'ourself,'' he wrote to Grant — 
a compliment that the little lieutenant general may be 
proud to point to. "If things are pressed," he added, 
"I think Lee will surrender." 

" Press things," was Grant's order. It needed no other. 
Sheridan pushed forward rapidly, struck right and left, 
punishing the enemy wherever found, and at last forcing 
Lee to surrender. Grant returned the compliment with 
interest in writing his final report of the closing opera- 
tions of the war. He describes, in his peculiarly forcible 
language, that, on the eve of the battle of Winchester and 
the beginning of Sheridan's valley campaign, he went to 
Sheridan's quarters to examine his plans, forces, material, 
etc., and found that he had only a single instruction to 
give his lieutenant — "Go in!" 

" Press things" and " go in" are instructions as laconic 
as they are indefinite. Thev betray Grant's practicabil- 
ity and plainness, and honor Sheridan. It is, perhaps, 
better to be the one addressed in such terms than even 
the author of them. Sheridan is not less plain and forci- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. • 153 

blc in bis language than Grant, as witness Ins various 
reports, the quotations above, and Lis ojnnion of Texas. 
"If I owned," be once said, "Texas and bell, I would 
sell Texas and live in tbe otber place." 

Tbe battle of Cbickamauga, as for as McCook and 
Sberidan were concerned, was only a repetition of Stone 
Eiver. McCook's corps, consisting tben of Davis's, Sber- 
idan's, and Negley's divisions, was again defeated. Gen- 
eral Negley, very unfortunately for that gallant oflicer 
and gentleman, was taken from bis division in tbe beat 
of battle and ordered to tbe command of a number of 
batteries, and tbe division suffered badl}'-, wbile the otber 
division, under General Jefferson C. Davis, was scattered 
in every direction. Sberidan, wbo bad formed tbe ex- 
treme right, bad a desperate tbougli ineffectual fight, but, 
after being separated from tbe rest of tbe army, eventu- 
ally cut bis own way out, brought in bis division about 
half organized, and took bis place in tbe line at llossville, 
to which Thomas fell back at night. On this occasion, 
as at Stone Eiver, Sberidan M\as a subordinate. The dis- 
aster to bis division was general to bis corps, and result- 
ed from tbe incapacity of otbers, and not bis own bad 
management. He was powerless to avert, be could only 
partly retrieve tbe disaster. On botb occasions be did so 
with a skillful band, by tbe most strenuous exertions, and 
at great personal risk. 

Chattanooga was tbe battle in which Sheridan caught 
tbe eye of Grant, wbo there selected him wiliiout hesita- 
tion for tbe important position which be subsequently 
filled. Sheridan's division formed the right of tbe centre 
column, which, in tlie engagement at Chattanooga on No- 
' G 2 



154 . PEESONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

vember 25, 1863, assaulted and carried Mission Eidge, 
and, breaking the rebel centre, assured the victory. His 
men were kept in position waiting for the signal to as- 
sault for over thirty-six hours, and they and their leader 
had grown very nervous, half fearing the battle would be 
won too soon by Sherman and Hooker, and the chance for 
glory stolen from them, when at last the wished-for sig- 
nal came, and away to the charge sprang the assaultiijjig 
columns. General T.J.Wood commanded one column, 
and he and Sheridan strove with a lofty ambition, in 
which there was nothing that a saint could condemn, to 
reach the summit first. Sheridan gloried in the deed. 
He could not contain himself, and yet he rode along the 
front line, half leading, half directing his men, as clear- 
headed as if the cross-fire of the twenty rebel batteries 
that opened upon his men were directed against charmed 
lives, and he knew them to be futile as against him. 
During the charge he took a canteen of whisky from his 
aid, Captain Avery, and, filling a cup which he carried, 
I'aised it with a gesture toward Bragg's head-quarters, 
which were plainly visible on the mountain crest, sajnng, 
in imitation of the soldiers, "How are you, Mr. Bragg ?" 
Before he could drink the liquor, a rifle-ball carried away 
cup and beverage. Sheridan exclaimed, " That's damned 
ungenerous !" There was no time for more, and he spur- 
red forward, and soon again formed part of his front line. 
His horse was killed under him, and he led the remainder 
of the assault on foot, reaching the summit with the first, 
and, as horses were not plentiful on the ridge, he sprang 
upon one of the fifty captured guns, swinging his sword 
over his head, and shouting for joy with his men, while, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 155 

at the same moment, he poured invective after invective 
on the heads of the rebels whom he was unable to pur- 
sue. Before the battle was ended, Grant, having left his 
head-quarters in Orchard Knob, rode along the summit 
of the ridge, and before the fire of the enemy had ceased 
he had marked Sheridan for future use. Chattanooga 
was the flood-tide of his fortunes, and, without knowing 
it at the time, he that day launched his bark anew. 
Henceforth his abilities were not to be lost by his being 
made subordinate to men of inferior calibre. He was 
henceforth to win great successes, not retrieve, in some 
degree, the great disasters of others. 

Sheridan did not know for months after of his good 
fortune on that day. On the contrary, his friends soon 
after had reason to imagine that he was again under a 
cloud. It was but a few months after this memorable 
battle that Gordon Granger and Sheridan were relieved 
of their commands. It was generally known that Gran- 
ger had offended Grant by his delay in moving with 
Sherman to Burnside's aid at Knoxville, and it was sup- 
posed that both he and Sheridan were laid on the shelf. 
I met the latter as he passed through Nashville, and he 
told me that he did not then exactly know his desti- 
nation, except that it was Washington City. The an- 
nouncement was soon made, however, that he had been 
placed in command of all of Grant's cavalry on the Po- 
tomac, and those who knew Sheridan learned to appreci- 
ate more highly the clearness with which Grant read the 
characters of his subordinates. Returning Sheridan to 
the cavalry service was not by any means the least im- 
portant of Grant's services to the country. 



156 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

It was not intended, in tlie scope of this chapter, to 
give a detailed statement of the events of Sheridan's 
life. The purpose was rather to make the public more 
familiar with his character than his history. The prom- 
inent points of his later career are as well known to all 
as myself, I have often had cause to regret that I have 
no personal recollections of Sheridan's remarkable cam- 
paign in the Shenandoah Valley. I should have been 
particularly glad to have had an opportunity to witness 
and to analyze the wonderful effect of Sheridan's pres- 
ence on his men during the rout at Cedar Eun. It can 
not be accounted for on any theory, however philosoph- 
ical, framed by a person who was not an eye-witness, 
while it might be comprehended in the light of a minute 
and graphic description of the manner of the general on 
that occasion. His success in restoring order, and then 
confidence, was doubtless due to his decisive manner, 
while the subsequent restoration of morale was owing to 
the promptness with which the offensive was resumed. 
The control which Sheridan then held over his men is 
certainly very remarkable, in view of the short time dur- 
ing which he had commanded them, and the condition in 
which he found them on this day. Absent at the begin- 
ning of the battle of Cedar Creek, it will be remembered 
that he pushed forward to the front to find his troops re- 
treating rapidly, and, although not pursued, much de- 
moralized. Demoralized does not necessarily, as I have 
found by experience on more than one doubtful field, 
imply defeat. Sheridan appears to have felt so ; for, on 
being told by a colonel whom he met that the " army was 
whipped," the indomitable Sheridan exclaimed, "You 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 157 

are, but the army isn't," His presence seemed to inspire 
the men with a new purpose. He possesses a secret sim- 
ilar to that of Cadmus. Though not making soldiers 
spring read3^-armed from the earth as Cadmus did, he 
creates an enthusiasm which gives additional power and 
strength to those he has. On the occasion alluded to, so 
powerful was this inspiring presence that, in an incredi- 
ble short space of time, he had his routed men reformed 
in line, and ready to receive the onslaught of the enemy. 
But the enemy, intent on rifling the captured camps, had 
not pursued in force, and Sheridan found waiting was in 
vain. The confidence of the troops had been restored by 
the presence of their leader, the facility with which he 
re-established the broken lines, and the cheering language 
and encouraging tone of his conversation and orders. He 
fully re-established the morale of the men when, finding 
the enemy failed to pursue, he ordered an advance. The 
fact that he did advance on the same day of the rout 
serves to show, among Sheridan's other great qualities as 
a leader, his decision and daring. There are few gen- 
erals, in our own- or any other service, who would have 
conceived the idea, or for a moment entertained the pur- 
pose of immediately resuming the offensive. Two year^ 
before, pursuit after a victory, not to mention pursuit aft- 
er a defeat, was held to be impossible. The fact that 
Sheridan was able on this occasion to resume the offens- 
ive with complete success shows how absolute was the 
confidence of the men in this comparative stranger, who 
had plead, entreated, cursed, and browbeat the flying 
army into order again. The magnificent ride from Win- 
chester to the field, which at the time was made in all 



158 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the accounts the salient feature of the battle, grows com- 
monplace when compared to "Little Phil's" ride among 
the routed masses of his corps. He may be said to have 
been every where at once, for his presence was felt in 
every battalion. His orders, so brilliantly illustrated and 
varied by his peculiar and numerous oaths, found their 
natural echoes in the cheers of the men, in whose hearts 
his presence restored confidence. The rapidity with 
which he rallied his broken lines and brought order out 
of chaos is incredible even to those who have seen the 
" belligerent cadet" in the midst of battles ; and to one 
who has never witnessed the singular effect which the 
reception of orders to attack have on men, it will still re- 
main incredible how he so far restored the confidence and 
morale of his troops as to enable him on that occasion to 
snatch victory from defeat. 

There was some occasion for the display of the same 
personal daring, and the exercise of the same influence 
by example, on the part of Sheridan, at the battle of Five 
Forks. His presence on every part of that contested field, 
it is now generally conceded, had as much to do as gen- 
eralship with the final result of that battle, where every 
thing depended on the persistence of the attack on the 
w^eak point which Sheridan had discovered. It is doubt- 
ful if success would have followed the eflbrts of a general 
who had been content to direct the battle. Sheridan led. 
He was in the front line, under the heaviest fire, at all 
times, waving his sword, encouraging his men, exhorting 
them to incredible deeds, and, as usual with him, swear- 
ing alternately at the enemy and his own skulkers. He 
is represented b}' those present as the "impersonation of 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 159 

every thing soldierly." lie rode up and down the lines, 
under fire, continually waving his sword, commanding 
in person, exhorting them to seize the opportunity within 
their grasp, and sweep their enemies to destruction. It 
is related of him, and the story is characteristic enough 
to be true, that, at the conclusion of the first day's unsuc- 
cessful battle at Five Forks, while striding up and down 
in front of his field head-quarters, apparently absorbed 
in deep and calm thought, he suddenly startled his staff 
by breaking out in a series of horrible oaths, in which he 
swore he would carry the rebel lines next day, or "sink 
innumerable fathoms into hell." 

Despite several remonstrances which I have received 
from him and his friends, I must say that Sheridan oc- 
casionally indulges in oaths, but one can easily find it 
in his heart to forgive them. They are merely the em- 
phasis to his language. Oaths are said to be fools' argu- 
ments. Sheridan throws them at one in a discussion not 
from a want of more forcible arguments, but from a lack 
of patience to await the slow process of logical conclu- 
sions. For this same reason he heartily despises a coun- 
cil of war, and never forms part of one if he can possibly 
avoid it. lie executes, not originates plans; or, as Rose- 
crans once expressed it in his nervous manner, " lie 
fights — he fights!" Whatever is given Sheridan to do 
is accomplished thoroughly. He does not stop to criti- 
cise the practicability of an order in its detail, and at the 
same time does not jaesitate to vary his movements when 
he finds those laid down for him are not practicable. He 
does not abandon the task because the mode which has 
been ordered is rendered impossible by any unexpected 



160 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

event. If the result is accomplished Sheridan does not 
care whose means were emploj^ed, or on whom the credit 
is reflected. He grasps the result and congratulates him- 
self, the strategist of the occasion and the men, with equal 
gratification and every evidence of delight. His gener- 
ous care for the reputation of his subordinates, his free- 
dom from all pett}^ jealousy, his honesty of purpose, and 
the nobleness of his ambition to serve the country and 
not himself, his geniality and general good-humor, and 
the brevity of his black storms of anger, make him, like 
Grant, not only a well-beloved leader, but one that the 
country can safely trust to guard its honor and preserve 
its existence. It is easy for- one who knows either of the 
two — Grant and Sheridan — to believe it possible that, 
during all the period in which they held such supreme 
power in our armies, not a single thought of how they 
might achieve greatness, power, and position, at the ex- 
pense of country, has ever suggested itself to their minds. 
There are few other characters known in profane history 
of whom the same thing can be truly said. 

Sheridan goes into the heat of battle not from necessity 
merely. The first smell of powder arouses him, and he 
rushes to the front of the field. It is related of him that 
when the engagement of Winchester began, he stood off 
a little to the rear, as Grant would have done, and en- 
deavored to calmly survey the field and direct the battle. 
But it was not in his nature to remain passive for a great 
while. When the fight warmed up and became general, 
he could stand it no longer, and, drawing his sword, he 
exclaimed, "B}'- God, I can't stand this!" and rode into 
the heat of the engagement. 



DISTINGUISHED GENEKALS. 161 

The belligerent in Sheridan's organization is often 
aroused without the stimulus of the smell of gunpowder. 
In 1863, while Sheridan was encamped at Bridgeport, 
Alabama, he invited General George 11. Thomas, then 
encamped at Deckerd, Tennessee, to examine the works, 
erected at Bridgeport and the preparations going on for 
rebuilding the bridge. I was then at Deckerd, and be- 
ing invited to accompany the party to Bridgeport, did so. 
At one of the way-stations the train halted for an unusu- 
ally long time, and Sheridan, on asking the conductor, a 
great, burly six-footer, the reason, met with a somewhat 
gruff reply. Sheridan contented himself with reproving 
his manner, and ordered him to proceed with the train. 
The conductor did not reply, and failed to obey. After 
waiting for a time, Sheridan sent for the conductor, and 
demanded to know why he had not obeyed. The fel- 
low answered, in a gruff manner, that he received his or- 
ders only from the military superintendent of the road. 
Without giving him time to finish the insulting reply, 
Sheridan struck him two or three rapid blows, kicked 
him from the cars and into the hands of a guard, and 
then ordered the train forward, acting as conductor on 
the down and return trip. After starting the train he 
returned to his seat near General Thomas, and, without 
referring to the subject, resumed his conversation with 
that imperturbable dignitary. 

On another occasion Sheridan detected an army news- 
vender in some imposition on the soldiers, and, without 
waiting for an explanation, he seized him by the back of 
the neck and thumped his head against the car, although 
he had to stand on tiptoe to do it. 



i(J2 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Sheridan's appearance, like that of Grant, is apt to dis- 
appoint one who had not seen him previous to his hav- 
ing become famous. He has none of the qualities which 
are popularly attributed by the imagination to heroes. 
"Little Phil" is a title of endearment given him by his 
soldiers in the West, and is descriptive of his personal 
appearance. He is shorter than Grant, but somewhat 
stouter built, and, being several years younger and of a 
different temperament, is more active and wiry. The 
smallness of his stature is soon forgotten when he is seen 
mounted. He seems then to develop physically as he 
does mentally after a short acquaintance. Unlike many 
of our heroes, Sheridan does not dwindle as one ap- 
proaches him. Distance lends neither his character nor 
personal appearance any enchantment. He talks more 
frequently and more fluently than Grant does, and his 
quick and slightly nervous gestures partake somewhat 
of the manner of Sherman. His body is stout but wiry, 
and set on short, heavy, but active legs. His broad 
shoulders, short, stiff hair, and the features of his face, be- 
tray the Milesian descent, but no brogue can be traced 
in his voice. His eyes are gray, and, being small, are 
sharp and piercing, and full of fire. When maddened 
with excitement or passion these glare fearfully. His 
age is thirty - four, but long service in the field has 
bronzed him into the appearance of forty, yet he is one 
of the most elegant of young bachelors, and answers 
fully to the description of the first Scipio, ^^MJuvems, et 
coelebs, et victor.^^ 




JOSEPH UOOKBB. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 165 



CHAPTER V. 

FIGHTING JOE HOOKER. 

The name and fixmc of General Joe Hooker are, as 
they ought to be, dear to every American, for he is emi- 
nently a national man. Born in Massachusetts, he has 
resided in every section of tlie eountry, and is cosmopol- 
itan in habits and ideas. Nature never made him for 
one part of trie land. He has fought over every part of 
the country from Maryland to Mexico, from the Potomac 
to beyond the Rio Grande, and from a private citizen of 
the most westerly district of California, he rose to com- 
mand as brigadier general of the regular army in the 
most easterly department of the reunited country. Every 
Californian,if not every American, is proud of Joe Hook- 
er, for he is a representative man of that peculiar race of 
pioneers drawn from every state of the Union and na- 
tionality of the globe. 

Hooker is naturally a fighting man, a belligerent by 
nature as much as Philip Sheridan, and he insists on 
forcing every dispute to the arbitrament of arms. Ac- 
tual blows satisfy him best, and, from the very nature of 
his mental organization, "war to the knife" is an admitted 
motto with him. A curious accident gave Hooker the 
title of " Fighting Joe ;" but few of the multitude who 
read of him under that appellation, and none of those 



166 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

who, in the heat ofpolitical and partisan discussion, which 
during the war seemed to partake of the extreme bitter- 
ness created by the conflict, endeavored to ridicule both 
person and expression, suspected how accurately the title 
described the character of the man. A man born with 
this disposition would naturally seek the army. Hooker 
entered West Point and studied his way through with a 
zeal and industry which must have placed hjm higher 
than twenty-eight in a class of fifty graduates liad he not, 
like Sheridan, suffered for his belligerency in the estima- 
tion of the staid and steady professors of that institute. 
He was not a student, nor'was he an idler, nor yet a plod- 
ding, industrious, dull scholar, who learned with great 
dillieulty, and retained only what he was taught. On 
the contrary, he was quick to learn, original in applying 
what he learned, and critical of the ideas and facts taught 
him. At West Point he as frequently criticised the rules 
of war laid down by the authorities of the past age as in 
the field as a general he was free in criticising his contem- 
poraries. He got through the course creditably in 1837, 
and managed, being still young, and the belligerency of 
his nature not fully developed, to exist in the quiet posi- 
tion of adjutant of West Point. Afterward he also man- 
aged to endure the monotony of the adjutant general's 
department for five years, until the war with Mexico 
broke out, when he sought adventure, promotion, and 
fame in the active service. The Mexican War was the 
great opportunity of many young lives, the practical 
schooling of nearly all who distinguished themselves 
during the late war ft>r the Union. To Hooker, young, 
ambitious, and belligerent, the opportunity was highly 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 167 

welcomed. The declaration of war was hailed by him 
with an intense joy that would have horrified his Puritan 
fathers if they could have been cognizant of it. 

Hooker's career in Mexico was not remembered when 
the rebellion began, or he would have earlier stood high 
in the confidence of the government, for it was among 
the most brilliant of the many successes attained by the 
many very able young men engaged in that war. To 
have risen under the old and very faulty organization of 
the army in a short 'war, in which there were few casual- 
ties, from a lieutenant to be brevctted lieutenant colonel 
of the regular army, was no small achievement. Hooker 
was successively brevetted captain, major, and lieutenant 
colonel "for gallant and meritorious conduct" in the sev- 
eral conflicts at Monterey, in the affair at the National 
Bridge, and in the assault of Chapultepec. He was de- 
tailed, if I remember rightly, early in the campaign as 
adjutant general on the staff of General Gideon Pillow, 
and, though Gabriel Rains and Ripley were associated 
with him on duty, it was generally understood and felt 
that the young chief of staff furnished all the brains and 
most of the energy and industry to be found at the head- 
quarters of the division. Pillow, Rains, and Ripley be- 
came somewhat notorious during the late rebellion as 
officers of the rebel army. During the war with Mexico 
sectional feeling ran high on the subject of supporting 
the administration in the prosecution of an offensive war, 
and very often young Hooker was compelled to hear ti- 
rades uttered by these Southern officers against his native 
state, whicli gave only a lukewarm support to the war of 
invasion which that against Mexico was deemed, but he 



168 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

never allowed tlicm to pass nnreprovcd or unrcsented. 
A less positive character than Hooker might have been 
influenced in his state allegiance by such surroundings 
in a camp composed almost exclusively of Southern sol- 
diers, and at a head-quarters whore prevailed the most 
intensely bitter sectionalism which then disgraced the 
army. The discussions which grew out of the objections 
which the young chief of staff took to the peculiar views 
of the embryo rebels only served to confirm him in his 
adherence to and love of the government; and none of 
the old army oflicers entered into the war for the Union 
with more alacrity or with a clearer conception of the 
dosjieratc purposes and characters of the traitors than 
did Joe Hooker, 

The peace which ensued in 18-17 found Ilooker with 
the natural belligerency of his quick temper fully devel- 
oped, his ambition fired, and his restless activity of mind 
and body increased. He had no disposition to return to 
the monotony of the adjutant general's office, or to that 
quiet of garrison duty, that a captain of artillery, -which 
he had become, ^YOuld have to endure. The unad ventur- 
ous career which a professional life in a settled country 
among civilized people promised was also without charms 
to his restless mind. He remained in the army only as 
long as the prospect of service in Mexico and on the Pa- 
cific Coast had any promise of activity ; but soon find- 
ing that the peace which followed the Mexican War was 
likely to be profound and undisturbed, he resigned his 
commission, and plunged into the excitement of pioneer 
life in the newly-discovered gold regions of California. 
He purchased a ranche across the bay from the city 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 169 

of San Francisco, and for a short time became interested 
in the, to birn, novel duties of a fanner. It is natural to 
suppose that this monotonous existence soon became pain- 
fully dull to a person of Hooker's restless disposition. 
The ranchc was neglected for other objects affording more 
excitement and adventure ; but by the year 18G0 this 
existence had lost many of its charms, and Hooker again 
found the " horrors of peace" upon him. Peace, it must 
be known, has its horrors for some men, just as the calm 
has its terrors for the seaman. The consequence was 
that Hooker fell into some of the bad habits which follow 
idleness. He was a " fish out of water," with nothing of 
an agreeable character to do, and he restlessly ran into 
some excesses, which I have heard his California friends 
allude to as the process of " going to the dogs." His 
business-character suffered, but not his social standing. 
His ranchc was neglected and went to ruin. His health 
became somewhat impaired, when, fortunately for him, 
the rebellion broke out. He hastened to Washington to 
offer his services to the President. 

He succeeded after much diflieulty in obtaining a com- 
mission, and gladly launched again into active service. 
He became a changed man. He had abandoned his bad 
habits with the case and readiness of a man of resolute 
and determined mind, and now, engaged in that profes- 
sion which had every charm for him, he began in earn- 
est the prosecution of tlie true aim of his life. He be- 
lieved in fate and destiny; believed that strong minds 
and brave hearts control their own fortunes; arid,witli 
firm confidence in himself, announced to his friends, wIk) 
congratulated him on his appointment, that one day he 

n 



170 TERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

would bo at the head of the ami}'-, of which he was then 
only a brigade coniniander. 

if Hooker's mihtaiy career be examined critically, it 
will be found that his success as a leader has been due 
to the impetuosity, boldness, and energy with which he 
fights. His presence on a battle-field may be said to be 
calculated to supply all deficiencies in the discipUne of 
the troops. Ilis presence and demeanor inspired his 
troops with the qualities of courage and daring which dis- 
tinguished himself, and restored morale to broken col- 
umns with the same success as that which ever marked 
the presence of Philip Sheridan. As commander of the 
Army of the Potomac, General Hooker never met with 
brilliant success. He assumed command at a time when 
the bitter jealousies which disgraced that army most im- 
paired its energies and retarded its action. He had little 
of the love or admiration, and, consequently, little of the 
genuine support of his subordinate commanders; while 
he was, by reason of his promotion, farther removed from 
immediate direction of his troops, and the inspiration of 
his presence was lost on those who had learned to believe 
in him. 

Success with Hooker depended upon his immediate 
presence with his troops, and to remove him from close 
intimacy with them was to impair his cflectiveness. No 
one will attempt to deny that Hooker held such an in- 
spiring control over his men, and that his presence among 
his troops in battle had much to do with their efllxtive- 
ness. He was what has been called "a powerful pres- 
ence." He was destined for a leader, not a director of 
troops, and hence his great success has been as the leader 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 171 

of fractional corps of great armies. His battles on ibo 
Peninsula; his vigorous pursuit of the rebels from York- 
town ; h'is conduct throughout the "battle-week on the 
Chickahominy," and his engagement at Malvern Ilil], 
were the deeds which are familiarly known throughout 
the country. LLis success as the commander of a corps 
in the West has become not less familiar to the public ; 
and his achievements at Lookout Mountain, Resaca, and 
before Atlanta, will be the basis for the establishment 
of his true character as a military man. I do not mean 
by this to say that Hooker can not command with suc- 
cess a great army. I have no personal knowledge of his 
career as a commanding general, but from his mental or- 
ganization it is evident that he is greater as a leader than 
as a director of men. My personal recollections of Hook- 
er's battles are confined to a few, the most remarkable 
of which was the battle of Lookout Mountain. The 
" battle above the clouds," as the assault of Lookout 
Mountain was called, was one of the most remarkable 
operations of the war. The mountain which was carried 
is fourteen hundred feet above the Tennessee River, and 
was held by a force of at least six thousand rebels strong- 
ly fortified. It is not a regular slope from the summit 
of Lookout to the foot, but the first twenty-five or thirty 
feet of the descent is perpendicular rocks, or what is gen- 
erally understood to be meant by "palisades." These 
are very high and grand, and there arc but two routes by 
which they can be overcome. One of these is a gap 
twenty miles south of the point on the Tennessee River 
where the assault was made. The other is by a road to 
Summertown, which winds up the east side of the mount- 



172 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

ain, ascending the palisades by a steep acclivity and nar- 
row road. General Hooker's plan of operation was to 
get possession of the road. To do so was to gain pos- 
session of the mountain. lie must be a regular mount- 
aineer who can unopposed make the ascent of the Look- 
out without halting several times to rest ; and the story 
of the assault seems incredible to one standing on the 
summit, where the rebels were posted, and looking at the 
rough ascent over which Ilooker charged. Only a gen- 
eral in whom the disposition to fight was largely devel- 
oped could have conceived such a project, and only troops 
inspired by the presence of one whom they knew to be 
a brave and daring leader could have executed the ambi- 
tious plan. It was planned in all its details, and exe- 
cuted in all its completeness by Hooker. The original 
intention of General Grant, who was commander-in-chief, 
was to attack Lookout with a force only sufficiently large 
to keep busy the rebel force occupying it wliilo the main 
attack was made elsewhere. The destruction of a pon- 
toon bridge, which connected Hooker's camp with that 
of the main army, forced Grant to leave him a much 
larger corps than he had at first intended, and he then 
gave Hooker permission to assault the mountain with all 
his force. The order was received about noon on the 
25th of November, 1863, but before nightfall General 
Ilooker had planned and had executed an attack which 
was as brilliant as daring. Two months' observation 
of the mountain from his camp in the valley had given 
him a full knowledge of all its outlines, its roads, etc., 
and it is easy to believe that the plan which Ilooker de- 
cided upon had had for some time a place in his mind. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 173 

It was as unique in conception as it proved successful in 
execution. 

A small force under General Osterhaus was ordered 
to make a feint upon the enemy's rifle-pits at the point 
(or " nose," as Rosecrans calls it) of the mountain, while 
with Geary, and Ireland, and Crufts, and Whitaker, Gen- 
eral Hooker moved up the valley west of the mountain 
until a mile in rear of the enemy's position ; the troops 
then ascended the side of the range until the head of the 
column reached the palisades which crown the mountain, 
and formed in line of battle at right angles with them ; 
they then marched forward as Osterhaus made a sharp at- 
tack as a feint, and, by taking the rebel works in flank and 
rear, secured about thirteen hundred prisoners. The ene- 
my fled around the " nose" of the mountain, closely pur- 
sued, to a position on the opposite side, where Ilooker 
again attacked. After one or two desperate efforts the 
rebel works were carried, but it was at such a late hour 
(midnight) that it was impossible to dislodge them from 
the Summertown road, a route by which they evacuated 
during the night. Ilooker made a great reputation by 
his unique plan, and the vigor with which he executed it. 
The battle on the other parts of the line were suspended 
for that day, and Hooker on the mountain became the 
"observed of all observers." The troops in the valley 
watched him and his Titans with equal admiration and 
astonishment; astonishment at the success attained, and 
admiration of the daring displayed. When our troops 
turned the point of the mountain, taking the rebels in 
rear, capturing many and pursuing the rest rapidly, the 
troops in the Valley of Chattanooga cheered them re- 



174 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

peatedly. As the lines of Ilookcr would advance after 
nightfall, those in Chattanooga and the galley could see 
the fires built by the reserves springing up and locating 
the advancing columns. As each line became developed 
by these fires, those on the mountain could plainly hear 
the loud cheers of their comrades below. One of the 
expressions used by a private who was watching the fires 
from Orchard Knob grew at once into the dignity of a 
camp proverb. On seeing the line of camp-fires ad- 
vanced beyond the last line of rifle-pits of the enemy, a 
soldier in General Wood's command sprang up from his 
reclining position on Orchard Knob and exclaimed, 
" Look at old Hooker : don't he fight for ' keeps ?' " 
" Fighting for keeps" is army slang, and signifies fight- 
ing in deadly earnest. 

Those who remained in Chattanooga described this 
combat as the most magnificent one of the grand pano- 
rama of war which the various battles of Chattanooga 
proved to be. General Meigs has graphically described 
it at a moment when it was just dark enough to see the 
flash of the muskets, and still light enough to distinguish 
the general outline of the contending masses. The 
mountain was lit up by the fires of the men in the sec- 
ond line, and the flash of the musketry and artillery. 
An unearthly noise rose from the mountain, as if the old 
monster was groaning with the punishment the pigmy 
combatants inflicted upon him as well as upon each oth- 
er, and during it all the great guns on the summit con- 
tinued, as in rage, to bellow defiance at the smaller guns 
in our forts on the other side of the river, which, with 
lighter tone and more rapidly, as if mocking the imbe- 



DISTINGUISnED GENERALS. 175 

cility of its giant enemy, continued to fire till tlie day 
roared itself into darkness. 

General M. C. Meigs has given the combat its name of 
the " battle above the clouds." It is true that Hooker 
fought above the clouds, but more than this, he manufac- 
tured the clouds that he might fight above them. Dur- 
ing the night before the engagement a slight, misty rain 
had fallen, and when the sun rose, cold and dull, next 
morning, a fog hung over the river and enveloped the 
mountain, serving as a convenient mask to Hooker's 
movements. As the day advanced, however, the fog be- 
gan to lift, and was fast disappearing, when the battle on 
the west side of the mountain began to rage heavily. 
Then the smoke of Hooker's musketry and artillery be- 
gan to mingle with the mist and clouds; they grew heavy 
again, and settled down close upon the mountain, so that 
at one time the clouds thus formed hid the contending 
forces from the view of those in the valley, and Hooker lit- 
erally fought the battle above clouds of his own making. 

The "inspiring presence" with which Hooker is en- 
dowed, and to which I have alluded, has had many illus- 
trations. McCIellan, with whom Hooker was no favor- 
ite, acknowledged that the loss of Hooker's presence by 
wounds, during the battle of Antietam, cost him many 
valuable fruits of that conflict. While such an acknowl- 
edgment is disgraceful to McCIellan, who could thus ad- 
mit that the absence of one corps commander out of five 
could lose him a battle, it is highly complimentary to 
Hooker, who appears, by the way, to have been the only 
officer at Antietam who was fighting for any definite ob- 
ject, any vital or key-point of the field. 



176 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

The well-known effect of Sheridan's presence at Cedar 
Creek was not more remarkable in restoring the morale 
of bis army than was tliat of Hooker at Peach-tree Creek, 
Georgia, in retrieving the disaster which was there threat- 
ened. The Army of the Cumberland was surprised at that 
point on the 20th of July, while on the march, and, being 
vigorously attacked, was in great danger of being routed. 
It was a well - known fact that the presence of Hooker 
every where along the line of the threatened and almost 
defeated army kept the men in line, at the work, and 
fmally saved the day. Were it within the purpose of 
this sketch to do so, no better illustration of the fighting 
general could be given than a detailed account of this 
battle, in which Hooker was the central — only figure. 
The country is as much indebted to him personally for 
the victory as to Sheridan for Cedar Creek, Eousseau for 
Perryvillc, or Thomas for Chickamauga. 

Ilookcr is " his own worst enemy" — not in a common 
and vulgar acceptance of that term, now universally ap- 
plied to those who indulge their appetite at the expense 
of the brain, Uis weakness is not of the vulgar order, 
but has been the disease of great minds immemorial. His 
great crime against weak humanity lies in the fact that 
he was born a critic. lago was not more positively crit- 
ical than Hooker, though the latter is not necessarily 
"nothing if not critical," as was Othello's evil genius. 
Hooker can not resist the temptation to criticise; and, 
being unable to appreciate that questionable code of mo- 
rality in which policy dictates that the truth is not al- 
ways to be spoken, he has made himself life-long ene- 
mies. He can attribute with perfect justice every fail- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 177 

ure of his life to that one "weakness of the noble mind." 
It accelerated his retirement from the service in 1853 ; 
it originated the difliculties which nearly prevented his 
re-entry into the service in 1861 ; it retarded his promo- 
tion, lay at the root of all his difficulties as commander 
of the Army of the Potomac, made enemies of his sub- 
ordinates, and defeated his every plan, and at last forced 
him to resign command of the army. It nearly defeated 
his every cilort to regain a command. It cost him many 
difficulties in the event, and finally forced him to retire 
from active command under Sherman just as the war 
was being wound up with the grand crescendo movement 
of Grant. lie was bitterly assailed by the press, and per- 
secuted by fellow-officers for his various criticisms, and 
even accused of insubordination by men who did not 
know that from time immemorial the orders of generals 
have been freely criticised by subordinates, who did not 
fail to obey them, however. Diogenes was not the only 
critic of Alexander the Great. Napoleon would have 
suffered even more than McClellan from criticism if he 
had been as poor a soldier, for McClellan had but one 
honest critic, Hooker, and all of Napoleoji's marshals fre- 
quently criticised his movements. Criticism forced the 
arbitrary Czar of Eussia to abandon the chief command 
of his army in the face of Napoleon's invasion of 1812, 
and turn over the command to a general who was not 
one of his favorites. Hooker was, indeed, the only genu- 
ine military critic which the war produced. Sherman 
occasionally indulged in critiques, but his temper inter- 
fered with his judgment, and made his criticism as absurd 
as vain. Fremont was merely a critic without being a 

II 2 



178 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

general, mid found fault for the love of fault-linding. 
General Meigs, who also tried his hand at criticism, was 
simply good-natured, not critical. Cluscrct and Gurowski 
were simply Bohemians, and Assistant Secretary of War 
Dana won reputation only as "Secretary Stanton's spy." 
The candor of Ilooker's criticisms make them highly 
palatable. One naturally admires the decision which 
marks them, and, though some may consider his reason- 
ings incorrect and his deductions unjust, they must enjoy 
the perfect independence with which they are uttered. 
Ilis criticism on the battle of Bull Eun first brought him 
to the consideration of Mr. Lincoln, who read characters 
at a glance. His famous criticism on McClellan, in which 
he did not hesitate (he never hesitates cither to censure 
or to fight) to attribute the failure of the Peninsular cam- 
paign to " the want of generalship on the part of our com- 
mander," gave him more publicity than his early battles. 
The late President used to remark that he had never had 
occasion to change the favorable opinion which he formed 
of Ilooker on hearing his criticism on the battle of Bull 
Run. The criticism on McClellan indicates the character 
of the critic as^ that of a quick, resolute, decided man, 
ready to take all responsibilities. The character has been 
fully established by Ilooker since he uttered that remark- 
ably free criticism. Ilooker's opinion of McClellan has 
been attributed to envy of the latter's position, but I 
think that he formed his conclusions of the man long be- 
fore the war of the rebellion. A circumstance which hap- 
pened during the Mexican War gave him his idea of 
McClellan, and is so admirable an illustration of McClel- 
lan's character that I am tempted to relate it here. At- 



DISTINGUISHED GENEllALS. 179 

tachcd to Pillow's head-quarters, where Hooker was chief 
of staff, was a young American, since celebrated as an 
artist. lie had long been resident in Mexico ; was im- 
prisoned on the approach of our forces to the city, but 
managed to escape and reach our army. Ilcre he volun- 
teered to act as interpreter to General Pillow, and accom- 
panied the army in this capacity through the rest of the 
campaign. One day, while encamped in the city after its 
capture. Captain Hooker re(j[uestcd the artist to make a 
drawing of a very superior piece of artillery captured 
during the assault. It happened that this gun was in the 
camp of a company of sappers and miners, and thither 
he repaired to make the sketch. On going to the com- 
pany head-quarters, he found Gustavus Smith, the captain, 
and Callcndcr, the first lieutenant of the command, absent, 
while Second Lieutenant George B. MeClellan, the officer 
on duty, was making the rounds of the camp. The art- 
ist at once repaired to the gun which he wished to sketch, 
and was -engaged in doing so, when MeClellan, with an 
armed guard at his heels, stepped up, with the martial air 
of one " dressed in a little brief authority," and demanded 
to know who the intruder was, and by what authority he 
was there engaged in sketching. The artist, smiling at 
the manner of the young man, very quietly handed him 
Captain Ilooker's authority for the work he was doing. 
On reading it MeClellan dismissed the guard, and opened 
a conversation with the intruder, asking him various 
questions, and at last eliciting the fact that he had been 
for several years past a resident of the city of Mexico. 
Instantly McClellan's interest was excited, and he pro- 
pounded innumerable questions to the artist on — not the 



180 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

history, wealth, resources, defenses, etc., of the city, as one 
would naturally suppose a young soldier might consist- 
ently do, but upon the condition, character, wealth, 
standing, etc., of the best families of the first society of 
the city ! He asked particularly after the most fashion- 
able, and aristocratic, and wealthy houses, and more par- 
ticularly still about the leading dames of the fashionable 
circles. He finally concluded by complaining to his in- 
formant that he found it dif&cult to get introduced to the 
first families, and had been much disappointed in not get- 
ting admitted into the best Mexican society. The story 
was too good to keep, and Hooker, Pillow, and all the 
staff afterward enjoyed the artist's frequent relation of 
the story of the young man who " fought to get into the 
best Mexican society." I have often thought that the 
young Napoleon conducted his Potomac campaigns as if 
his purpose was to place himself on such a footing that, 
on arriving at Richmond, he would be readily admitted 
into "the best Southern society." Advising a man of 
McClellan's character, as Hooker once did, to disobey or- 
ders and move on Richmond, with the encouraging com- 
ment that he "might as well die for an old sheep as a 
lamb," was like throwing pearls to swine. 

The criticism on McClellan and his want of generalship 
was mistaken by a great many for vanity instead of can- 
dor, and the press of the country heartily ridiculed Hook- 
er's vanity. He was called an exalte^ an enthusiast. He 
has certainly a good opinion of himself, as all great men, 
not only warriors, but philosophers, have invariably had 
of themselves. Many not less famous men have been 
vain of lesser qualities than Hooker boasts, and their own 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 181 

good opinions of themselves have been adopted by pos- 
terity. Hooker is proud of his mental abilities. Cassar 
was proud of his personal appearance, and devoted more 
hours to the plucking of gray hairs from his head than 
he did to sleep. Yanity and valor often go hand in hand. 
Murat was equally brave and vain, and made his famous 
charges bedizened in gold lace, and resplendent with fan- 
ciful furs and ermine trimmings. Heroes are seldom 
sloven. Cromwell and Sherman, in their slovenliness, 
are paradoxes in nature as they are marvels in history. 

Hooker's retirement from the army was accelerated, and 
his subsequent return to the service was retarded, as has 
been stated, by this habit of freely criticising the opera- 
tions of the army. The history of his troubles is as fol- 
lows : Immediately after the close of the war with Mexico, 
Hooker was called upon to testify before a court of in- 
vestigation, which had the settlement of the difficulties 
between Generals Pillow and Worth growing out of the 
assaults on Chapultepec. In the course of his examina- 
tion he very freely criticised some of the movements of 
General Scott, the commander-in-chief, and with that 
confidence in his own judgment which is a marked char- 
acteristic of Hooker, and which, strange to say, betrays 
nothing egotistical in it, told how he would have accom- 
plished the same ends attained by Scott at less loss, by 
other movements. Scott, with good reason, was mortal- 
ly offended ; and when Hooker's resignation reached his 
hands in the routine channel of business, it was not de- 
layed for lack of approval, but was forwarded with a rec- 
ommendation that it be accepted. When Hooker wished, 
at the beginning of the rebellion, to return to the army. 



182 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

General Scott stood in the way ; and being supreme in 
autliority, under the President, he permitted Hooker to 
beg for admission for some months, keeping him dancing 
attendance unavailingly at the doors of the war office. 

Hooker lingered for several months at Washington 
endeavoring to get a command, only leaving the city to 
witness the Bull Kun battle ; but at last wearied out, and 
seeing no hope of attaining his ends, he determined to 
return to California. Before leaving, however, he called 
upon the President, whom he had never met, to pay his 
parting respects, and was introduced by General Cad- 
walladcr as " Captain Hooker." The President received 
him in his usual kind style, but was about to dismiss him, 
as time required that he should dismiss many, with a few 
civil phrases, when he was surprised by Hooker's determ- 
ined tones into listening to his history. 

"Mr. President," he began, "my friend makes a mis- 
take. I am not ' Captain Hooker,' but was once Lieuten- 
ant Colonel Hooker, of the regular army. I was lately a 
farmer in California, but since the rebellion broke out I 
have been here trying to get into the service, but I fmd I 
am not wanted. I am about to return home, but before 
going I was anxious to pay my respects to you, and to 
express my wishes for your personal welfare and success 
in quelling this rebellion. And I want to say one word 
more," he added, abruptly, seeing the President was about 
to speak; "I was at Bull Eun the other day, Mr. Presi- 
dent, and it is no vanity in me to say I am a damned 
sight better general than you had on that field." The 
President seized and shook Hooker's hand, and begged 
him to sit down ; began a social chat, which, of course, led 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 183 

to a story, and thus on to a more intimate acquaintance. 
The President, who was Hooker's firmest friend after- 
ward, used to take great pleasure in telling the circum- 
stance, and the effect of the speech upon him. The boast 
was made in the tone, not of a braggart, but of a firm, con- 
fident man, who looked him straight in the eye, and who, 
the President said afterward, appeared at that moment as 
if fully competent to make good his words. He was sat- 
isfied that he would at least try, and, impressed with the 
resolute air not less than with the high recommendations 
of " Mr. Hooker," requested him to defer his return to 
California. Hooker remained in Washington, and among 
the numerous changes which shortly followed the battle 
of Bull Eun and the retirement of General Scott was the 
transformation of" Mr. Hooker" into "Brigadier General 
Hooker." 

Hooker sometimes indulged in sharp criticisms even in 
his ofiicial reports. During the battle in Lookout Val- 
ley he sent a portion of his left wing, under General 
Shurtz, to the assistance of General Geary ; but the for- 
mer became mixed as to his topography, and did not 
reach the battle-field until too late to aid Geary, who 
accomplished his task successfully. He reported, in ex- 
tenuation of his failure, that he found a wide swamp in 
his path, and had been compelled to go around it. Hook- 
er, in his ofiicial report, after stating General Shurtz's ex- 
cuse, adds very quietly that he had thoroughly examined 
the country between General Shurtz's camp and the bat- 
tle-field, and that no such swamp as described existed. 

Another criticism on some of his subordinates during 
the battle of Lookout Mountain reacted on Hooker in 



184 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

consequence of being too delicfitely put by him, and too 
broadly by Grant in an indorsement. During the as- 
sault of that mountain, General Walter Whitaker com- 
manded the second line of the attacking column under 
Geary, and the formation being that of echelon on the 
right, Whitaker was some distance in the rear. When 
Geary's front line reached and took the rebel position, a 
large number of prisoners and several cannon were cap- 
tured, and turned over by the front line to Whitaker. 
Whitaker sent the prisoners to the rear, secured them 
and the guns ; and in his official report represented them 
as his captures. Geary, in his report, mentioned, as he 
had a perfect right to do, the captures as his, and thus the 
reports showed double the list of actual captures. Hook- 
er, in a quiet, sarcastic vein, whose irony is hardly visible 
to those not acquainted with the circumstances, alluded 
to this double report, and gave the full number of cap- 
tured guns and men with an ironical exclamation point 
at the end of the sentence. Grant turned the joke on 
Hooker by indorsing his report, with the statement that 
the amount of captured material enumerated exceeded 
the actual captures by the whole army ! 

When Burnside was in command of the Army of the 
Potomac he executed an order, which was afterward 
suppressed by the President, dismissing several officers of 
his army from the service for various reasons. Among 
the number was General Hooker, dismissed, as might nat- 
urally be supposed, for having criticised the action of his 
commanding general at Fredericksburg. The order, 
which was known as " General Order No. 8," was not 
carried into effect, and only saw the light through the 



DISTINGUISHED GENEKALS. 185 

treacTiery of a clerk in the adjutant general's office of 
the army. Instead of the order being carried out, Burn- 
side soon after resigned, and Hooker assumed command 
of his army. 

Hooker left the Army of the Cumberland in conse- 
quence of having freely criticised Sherman's movements 
on the advance on Atlanta. The failure of Sherman to 
promptly follow up his success in seizing Snake Creek 
Gap, and to retrieve the blunder of McPherson on retiring 
from before Eesaca in May, 186-i, was particularly provok- 
ing not only to Hooker, but to every other commander 
who saw Joe Johnston slip through Sherman's fingers in 
consequence of that delay, and Hooker very freely alluded 
to it as a blunder. The natural consequence o#this, and 
subsequent instances of candid criticism on Hooker's part, 
was the creation of some considerable prejudice against 
him in Sherman's mind. Sherman was of too bilious a 
temperament ever to sacrifice an opportunity to vent his 
spleen, and when he found an occasion he took care to 
resent the insult of which Hooker had been guilty in 
criticising him, forgetting that Curtius and Alexander, 
Jomini and Napoleon had ever existed. The opportunity 
came. When McPherson, the commander of the Army of 
the Tennessee, was killed in front of Atlanta, Hooker was 
left the senior major general in command of a corps in 
Sherman's department, and he naturally expected to be 
placed in command, the more so as the President so de- 
sired. But Sherman appointed General O. O. Howard to 
the command, subject, of course, to the approval of the 
commander-in-chief, Mr. Lincoln telegraphed Sherman, 
requesting him to appoint General Hooker ; and on Sher- 



186 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

man's reiteration of bis desire to have General Iloward 
appointed, the President urged Hooker's appointment in 
stronger terms. General Sherman was determined that 
Ilooker should not be appointed, and with an imperti- 
nence characteristic of Sherman, replied, that "bis resig- 
nation was at the service of the President." Had Mr. 
Lincoln been a thorough military man instead of a good- 
natured and indulgent President, be would have at least 
punished Sherman for such an unwarrantable reply, but 
he only smiled at it and liked Sherman, as every body 
else did, all the better for what looked like independence 
rather than impertinence. The consequence was that 
Iloward was appointed. A thousand worse appointments 
might hq^e been made, and I don't know but what the 
methodical Howard better suited the command than 
Hooker would have done. Hooker took umbrage at the 
appointment of Howard — the insult was too glaring and 
oflbnsive to be overlooked — and at his own request he 
was relieved of command under Sherman by the Presi- 
dent, and given the command of the Department of the 
North. 

It is not to be supposed, from what I have said about 
Hooker's disposition to criticise, that he is of a vindictive 
nature. His disgust is not irrevocable. He is always 
ready to forgive a blunder when retrieved by a success. 
He is particularly constant in his friendships. There are 
several instances of his friendship for men, which are re- 
membered without being remarkable except for their con- 
stancy, and as illustrating the kindness of his heart. He 
was particularly devoted years ago to the interest of an 
humble friend whom he met in Mexico under rather 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 187 

singular circumstances. During the battle of Churubus- 
co he was sent by Pillow with an order to one of the 
brigade commanders. Being compelled to cross a ditched 
field — very common in Mexico — he went on foot, with 
only his sabre at his side. While crossing the field he 
was suddenly attacked, not by Mexican Lancers, but by 
a Mexican bull, who dashed unexpectedly at him. lie 
immediately turned and gave battle in the true matador 
style, thrusting with his sabre whenever an opportunity 
offered, and springing out of the way, with all the ac- 
tivity of a bull-fighting Spaniard. lie was fast getting 
weary of the sport, however, when he saw at a distance a 
private of the Mounted Eifles, and called on him to shoot 
the beast. After much trouble he at last attracted the at- 
tention of the soldier, who quickly obeyed orders, crossed 
the ditch and shot the bull, much to the relief of Hook- 
er. The soldier immediately afterward disappeared, and 
Hooker found it impossible to discover him, though 
search was made through camp for the preserver of his 
life, as Hooker persisted in considering him. He did not 
give up the search, and at last discovered the man years 
after in Washington. He was in want. Hooker, having 
some influence, obtained him a position in one of the de- 
partments at Washington, where he still remains, a firm 
friend of Joe Hooker, and boasting of enjoying the friend- 
ship of the "commander of the best army on the planet." 
Like most nervous men, Hooker is untiringly energet- 
ic. He goes at every thing, as he does at the enemy, with 
a dash. He talks at you with vigor, piles argument on ar- 
gument in rapid succession — argument which requires not 
less vigorous thought to follow and answer — couples facts 



188 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

witli invectives, and winds up with a grand charge of re- 
sistless eloquence which has much the same effect as the 
grand charge of a reserve force in battle. lie works with 
the same rapidity — the same nervous, resistless energy, 
and does not know what fatigue is. He has energy 
equal to Sherman, and in his organization and habits is 
somewhat like Sherman, though more elegant. Hooker 
is the very impersonation of manly grace, dignity, deli- 
cacy — a thorough-bred gentleman. Hooker has energy 
equal to Grant, but he has not Grant's patience, stoicism, 
or imperturbability. He is not content, like Grant, to 
wait for results. His strength lies in his momentum ; 
Grant's in his weight. It was perhaps because Hooker 
so nearly resembles him, and because Howard had such 
opposite characteristics, that Sherman preferred the latter 
as commander of the Army of the Tennessee. Howard 
and Hooker have certain qualities in common, but yet are 
as different in organization as Sherman and Howard. 
Howard is, like Hooker, a finished gentleman, princely 
in manners. No one meeting them can fail to notice that 
both are equally graceful, equally handsome, equally dig- 
nified, considerate, manly, and courteous. But Howard, 
unlike Hooker, is exceedingly methodical, is always calm, 
self-possessed, and of a lymphatic rather than a bilious 
temperament. Hooker is ever sanguine. It is not to 
be supposed that, because he is a quick worker, he easily 
flags in his hasty labor. His energy never gives out, and 
he is as persistent as Thomas, more so than Sherman, and 
vies with Grant in this respect. 

The title of " Fighting Joe" is very offensive to Gener- 
al Hooker, but I have chosen to use it as the heading for 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 189 

this article because it accurately as well as briefly de- 
scribes the character of the man. It was given him by 
an accident, but it was a happy one ; and when history 
comes to sum up the characteristics of our heroes, she will 
apply it as indicative of Hooker's character. The cir- 
cumstances under which it was given are as follows : The 
agent of the New York Associated Press is often com- 
pelled, during exciting times, to furnish his telegraphic 
accounts by piecemeals, in order to enable the papers to 
lay the facts before the public as fast as received, and 
hence, in order to number the pages correctly, he has to 
originate what are called "running heads," or titles, each 
being repeated with every page. When the account of 
the battle of Malvern Ilill was being received by the As- 
sociated Press agent at New York, there was such great 
excitement in that city that it even extended to the tele- 
graph operators and copyists, who were generally con- 
sidered proof against such fevers of excitement. In the 
midst of the sensation which that battle created, one of 
the copyists, in his admiration of the gallantry and daring 
of General Hooker as detailed in the report, improvised 
as a " running head" the title " Fighting Joe Hooker," 
which was repeated page after page. Two or three of 
the papers adopted it, in lieu of a better, as the head-line 
for the printed accounts, and heralded the battle of Mal- 
vern Hill under that title. The name "stuck," and has 
been fixed on Hooker irretrievably. Instead of accept- 
ing the title as a decree of fate, he can not bear to hear it. 
"It always sounds to me," he once said, when allusion 
had been made to it, " as if it meant ' Fighting Fool.' It 
has really done me much injury in making the public be- 



190 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

lieve I am a furious, headstrong fool, bent on making fu- 
rious dashes at the enemy. I never have fought without 
good purpose, and with fair chances of success. When I 
have decided to fight, I have done so with all the vigor 
and strength I could command. 

A very general idea at one time prevailed that Gener- 
al Ilooker was a hard drinker, very often indulging to 
great excess, but this has of late been corrected. As far 
as my rather close observation goes, the impression was 
unfounded. It had its origin with that pestiferous class 
of humorists who devote their energies to the renewal of 
old jokes for the sake of modern application. Many of 
the false impressions which were afloat regarding Mr. 
Lincoln found their origin in the habit which the Joe 
Millers of the age had of crediting their stories, both witty 
and vulgar, to Mr. Lincoln instead of to the Ii'ish nation 
as formerly. It is from these same fellows that Hooker 
has suffered, and three fourths of those who declared him 
to be a drunkard had no better foundation for the asser- 
tion than a story told as coming from Mr. Lincoln, in 
which Hooker was recommended to avoid Bourbon Coun- 
ty in his passage through Kentucky. Hooker's style of 
living in camp was elegant, more from the attention of 
the staff ofiiccrs who messed with him than from his own 
desire, taste, or exertions. He was always indifferent to 
personal comfort, though very particular as to personal 
appearance. 

His complexion may have been the origin of the sto- 
ries about his drunkenness, but every one familiar with 
him knows that his roseate hue is natural to him. His 
complexion is red and white most beautifully blended, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 191 

and be looks as rosy as the most healthy woman alive. 
LLis skin never tans nor bleaches, but peals oil" from ex- 
posure, leaving the same rosy complexion always visible. 
The Spanish women in the city of Mexico, with whom 
he was a great favorite, described his complexion by an 
adjective, a mongrel Spanish word which 1 have now for- 
gotten, but which I remember signified " the only man 
as beautiful as a woman." 

El cajntan hermoso, " the handsome captain," was a 
phrase as common with the Mexican ladies of the Mexi- 
can capital as " Fighting Joe" is now with the American 
jjublie. M huen mozo was another phrase among tlicm; 
while more intimate admirers called him El guero^ "the 
light-haired." The light brown hair is now much tinged 
with gray, and, until lately. El huen mozo, the comely 
youth, despite the ravages of time, was a splendidly pre- 
served young gentleman of fifty. But the tall, erect, mus- 
cular figure of El capitan hermoso has been bent and 
weakened, but not by age. His animal spirits are just as 
great as when he marched through Mexico, but his phys- 
ical endurance is gone, perhaps, forever. His full, clear 
C3^c is just as bright to-day as it was when he was sim- 
ply captain and chief of staff to General Pillow, but he 
can not spring as nimbly into the saddle at the sound of 
opening battle. On the 20th of November, 1865, while 
assisting at the reception of General Grant at the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel, New York, he was suddenly stricken with 
paralysis, and was carried to his residence in a helpless 
state. He lost the use of his right side, leg, and arm, and 
will, it is feared, become a confirmed invalid. His phy- 
sicians declare that the paralytic stroke was the result of 



192 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

a blow received by Hooker at the battle of Chancellors- 
ville nearly three years before. The general became 
very much reduced by this disease ; his frame became 
bent and emaciated, and something of the symmetry of 
his features was lost. Yery little hope of his ultimate 
recovery is entertained by any other person than him- 
self; but nothing can convince the sanguine general that 
his health will not return to him in time. 




LOVKLL U. BOUSSEAC. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 195 



CHAPTER VI. 

REMINISCENCES OF ROUSSEAU. 

All failures find their special apologies, and some cu- 
rious ones were originated by the admirers of McClellan 
to account for the singular ineffective policy of that offi- 
cer. That policy is now generally known as the "McNa- 
poleonic," in contradistinction to the Fabian policy, from 
which it differed only in that Fabian attained valuable 
results, while McClellan did not. Every thing was to 
have been effected by the young Napoleon, according 
to his admirers, by pure, unalloyed strategy, and the re- 
bellion and its armies were to be crushed without blood- 
shed. This great strategist, according to these author- 
ities, was without parallel ; all the rest of the generals, 
like Thomas, Grant, Hooker, etc., were, according to the 
McClellan theory, only " fighting generals." Their battles 
were mere massacres; Grant was a butcher; they quote 
his Wilderness campaign even to this day to prove it, and 
declare that he lost a hundred thousand men in his bat- 
tles north of the James, but never reflect that McClellan 
lost ninety thousand without doing any fighting, and 
while retreating instead of advancing to that same river. 
Sheridan, to their mind, is a mere raider, without an idea 
of strategy, and Thomas, Hooker, Hancock, and all the 
rest, were '■^ only fighting generals." 



196 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Belonging to this " despised" class of fighting generals, 
of which Hooker and Sheridan, as I have endeavored to 
show, despite this McClellan theory, are brilliant gradu- 
ates, are Major Generals John A. Logan, of Illinois, and 
Lovell H. Eousseau, of Kentucky. Each of these four 
is endowed mentally, and constituted by nature, to be a 
leader of men. Hooker and Sheridan have been con- 
firmed generals by education. Rousseau and Logan owe 
every thing to.*nature, and are leaders, not generals, in- 
tuitively. The first two have been educated at West 
Point into being good directors of armed battalions, but 
it goes " against the grain" with either to confine himself 
solely to the direction of a battle, and hence they are often 
seen in battle obeying the dictates of nature, and leading 
charges which they should direct. Eousseau and Logan 
never enjoyed the advantages of West Point, and, as na- 
ture is unchecked in them by education, he who hunts 
for them on the battle-field must look along the front 
line, and not with the reserves. Neither Logan nor Rous- 
seau would be content — it can not really be said that they 
are competent — to direct a battle on a grand scale: it 
would simply be an impossible task on the part of either, 
for they are neither educated nor constituted naturally 
to be commanders, in the technical sense of the term. 
They are neither strategists nor even tacticians. Both 
are bold, daring, enthusiastic in spirit; one has a com- 
manding presence, and the other an inspiring eye, and 
the natural and most effective position of each is at the 
head of forlorn hopes, or leading desperate charges to 
successful issues. 

The same contrast in person between "Fighting Joe 



DISTINGUISHED GPJNEUALS. . 197 

Hooker," tall, towering, and always graceful, and "Little 
Phil Sheridan," short, quick, and rough, can be traced 
between Eousseau,, a huge, magnificent, ponderous, and 
handsome figure, and "Black Jack Logan," a somewhat 
short but graceful figure, in whose forehead is set the 
finest pair of eyes ever possessed by a man. The j^er- 
sonnel of these four warriors differs very much. Hooker 
and Eousseau are very different types of the tall and ele- 
gant "human form divine," and Logan and Sheridan il- 
lustrate the graceful and the graceless in little men ; but 
the great hearts of each beat alike, and on the battle- 
field the daring and boldness of each are equally con- 
spicuous and effective. 

Of all these heroes, however, Rousseau is most natu- 
rally a leader. His whole career, civil and military, il- 
lustrates him as such ; and only in a country of the ex- 
tent of ours, with such varied and complex interests ex- 
isting within each other, could any man attain the suc- 
cess with which he has been rewarded, without at the 
same time gaining such fame as would have made his 
name as familiar in every home as household words, and 
invested him with a national reputation. It is a fact il- 
lustrative of the vast extent of the late war, and of the 
existence of the various sectional interests which were 
second to the great, absorbing feeling of devotion to the 
whole Union, that there are thousands of people in the 
East who do not know aught of the geographical posi- 
tion of Western battle-fields, or the history of the milita- 
ry career of the more distinguished officers of the Western 
armies. The case is also reversed, and such distinguish- 
ed men as Meade, Hancock, and Sickles, and hundreds 



198 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

less renowned, are hardly known at the West. The peo- 
ple of the East, naturally absorbed in the interests which 
are nearest and dearest to them, are intimately acquaint- 
ed with the history and achievements of the chosen lead- 
ers of their sons and brothers of the Potomac armies, but 
know little in detail of the leaders of the Western armies. 
To the people of the East, Eosecrans is a myth of whom 
they remember only that he met disaster at Chickamauga; 
and of Thomas they know little more than that he was the 
hero of that same defeat. They know little of McPher- 
son, McClernand, Dodge, Blair, Oglesby, Osterhaus, and 
others, save that they " were with Grant" at Vicksburg 
and elsewhere. Indeed, the whole army of the West 
enjoy in the East a mythical existence, and Logan and 
Eousseau live in our memories as undefinedly, though as 
iirml}^, as many of the characters of romance. Nine out 
of every ten who are asked to tell who and what they 
are will be puzzled for a replj^, and will state much that 
is pure romance, and nothing illustrative of their charac- 
ters. And yet no two men have been more prominent 
or more popular in the armies with which they were con- 
nected than these two rising men of the West. 

General Rousseau, of whom it is proposed to speak in 
this chapter, is not a strategist nor a tactician according 
to the rules of West Point, in whose sciences he is uned- 
ucated save by the practical experience of the past four 
years of war. He makes no pretensions to a knowledge 
of engineering, or strategy, or grand tactics, is not even 
versed in the details of logistics ; but of all those who 
have won reputation as hard, pertinacious, and dashing 
lighters, none more deserve their fame than he. His bat- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 199 

ties have been brilliant, if short; desperate and bloody 
contests, in which more has resulted from courage and 
the enthusiasm imparted to the men than from strategy 
and tactics. If examination is made into Kousseau's ca- 
reer, it will be found that he has ever been in the front 
line of battle, not only at Buena Vista, in our miniature 
contest with Mexico, at Shiloh, Perryville, and Stone 
River, but in every aspect, and under all circumstances 
of his career, always ahead, and leading his people in 
politics as in war. A self-educated and self-made man, 
of strong intellectual and reasoning powers, quick to re- 
solve and prompt to act, he appears at all times in that 
noble attitude of one who has led instead of following 
public sentiment. In youth he was left the junior mem- 
ber of an orphaned family, of which his habit of decision 
made him the head and chief dependence. Emigrating 
in 1841 to Indiana, he made himself, by his talents, the 
leader of a party which had never attained success before 
his advent, and never won it after his retirement. His 
personal popularity retained him a seat in the Senate of 
Indiana for six years. In the middle of the term for 
which he was elected in 1848, he returned to Kentucky, 
and began the practice of law at Louisville. The Demo- 
crats of the Indiana Senate insisted he should resign, be- 
cause a non-resident, but his constituents would not allow 
him to retire ; and Rousseau threatened in retaliation to 
return to reside in Indiana and. again run for the Sen- 
ate. The Democrats were afraid of this very thing, and 
opposition to Rousseau's retention of his seat for the rest 
of the term was silenced. The Democrats contented 
themselves with trying to throw ridicule on him by call- 
ing him " the member from Louisville." 



200 PERSONAl. JiKCOLl.KCTIONS OF 

Eeturiiing to Kentucky in 18-11), Rousseau was one of 
the lew ol' lier sons who were prepared to seeond or 
adopt the views then agitated by Henry Clay in I'egard 
to emancipating slaves. In 1855, when " Know-Nolh- 
ingisrn" had swallowed u]) his old ])arty — the Whig — 
and held temporarily a great majority in his city, coun- 
ty, and state, Eousseau became the leader of the small 
minority which rejected the false doctrines of the "Amer- 
ican" party. Ills bitter denunciation of its practices, its 
tendencies to mob violence, and his persistent opposition 
to its onci'oachments on individual rights, nearly cost 
him his life at the hands of a mob who attacked him 
while defending a German in the act of depositing his 
Vote. He was shot through the abdomen, and confined 
for two months to his bed, but had the satisfaction to 
know, when well again, tJi;it the jiarty he had fought al- 
most single-handed had no longer* an organized existence. 
lie was also instrumental, in 1855, in saving two of the 
Catliolic churches of Jjouisville fi'om destruction at the 
hnnds of a mob of Know-Nothings, and gained in popu- 
larity with both parties, when the passion and excitement 
of the time had passed away, by these exhibitions of his 
great courage and sense of riglit and justice. 

It was not merely, however, through the political ex- 
citement of tlie day that Rousseau won his }K)])ularity 
and established his character. For many years past — 
for at least two generations before the war — the courts of 
Kentucky have been noted for the many important and 
exciting criminal trials which have come up in them, and 
no bar presented finer opportunities for a young criminal 
hnvj'er. From the time of Rouss(\'m's r{M,urn to Ken- 



. ])I!^TINOlJIHIIKl)'(lKNK[tAI..S. 201 

lucky ill 18-19 to the period wlicn he went into the armj' 
in 1861, no important criminal case was tried in the 
Kentucky courts in wliich he did not figure on one side 
or the other. In l84^j, the old system of [)lf^adiiig in 
the common law courts of England, as it existed before 
it had been eli[)ped and modified by legislation, was in 
vogue at the Indiana bar, and on his advent in that state 
Jt(jusscau soon found that no lawyer could practice re- 
spectably there without special pleading. A lawyer who 
was not a special pleader would in those days frequently 
find his case and himself thrown out of court, without ex- 
actly understanding how it was done, lie therefore stud- 
ied special pleading as a system in itself, taking the old 
l<]iiglish authors on the subject, and, after a few years' 
hard study and practice, soon made liimself one of the 
best special pleaders in the West. When he returned 
to Kentucky, this system, not so thoroughly in ns(; there, 
gave him several triumphs, which at once established 
his character and gave him plenty of practice. As a 
jury lawyer Eousscau lias h:id no rival in his district 
since 1855; and the late Attorney General of the Unit- 
ed States, James Speed, acknowledges himself indebted 
to Eousseau for several of his worst defeats before ju- 
ries. Knowing the particular and peculiar legal tal- 
ents of Rousseau, the attorney general employed him 
to aid in the prosecution of Jelf Davis for treason, and 
to assist Hon. John If. ('liflord and Willinm M. Ev- 
arts in the important duty of endeavoring to define 
treason. 

There occurred in Tiouisvilhj in 1857 a trial of a very 
remark'.'ible chnraeter, which illiistrfites in a very interc>st- 

I 2 



inf? mniinor Ivonnf.onn'n lon'nl ability nnd liin (l(>('iivion ami 

tliinii;.', A r.iniiU d' livti OV MIX | ti'i.uMi;:, li;iiiHil .li>\i't', 
\vt'.i(i iiiiii'doii'tl, mill llirir luxlii'.i ImiiKil m I. heir lii>ii;U5 

llCiU llli'. i'll\ ; '^ll;i|ili'li 111 IMI ll|Mi|l .SOIIIO lU'J-^l'Ol'M on llic 

iKlji'iiiiii^' |il:iiil;il loii, niiil llicy \v<'ro Ht'i/.i'il by \]ns iiri;.'ji 
ImiM ami llii'fiih'iu'd willi liaiii-'iiij-', il'llu•^ dnl not. ctHilrMM. 
One t.r Iwii ollliciii wfic liiiiijj ti|i r>«i' a li'w iihiliu'iitM 
and llicii Id di'wii ii(^a.i l_v »^-s liaiintcd, lull ,'it ill [icivaslcd in 

di'i-laillif IIhii iiiiiitiMMUH*. A IH'I licr, lhi\Vi'\ I'l, Ih'd to H 
dlnkc, and (lie laiMils lired arciind linn, ay reed to I'onles.s, 
and, to avoid dealli l>v l>uruniy,, coule.sMeil that. Iiuiisell'aiul 
thtM)|,hoi'M ni'i't^Hti'd with him hat! i-iuumittiHl \\\o miiiiler. 
Tht^ m^grooa — lour iA' iIumh, all Itelony.in^; ti^ onr man - 
WOVU tlll'ONVn ml.- |,iil lo awail llieir trial. 'Tlicii' luast^^r 
WIIH Slltif^iltnl ihal llie\ were iiiiioeeni , and deliM'luilH'd U> 
eilgngd tho bOMt avadaMe eoiiiisel Iwr lliein. Tin;! waHl 

easier to pvoposi- than lo do, tor so great wnis the exoito- 
uu^nt ain»M\p; thf |HH>[>hi that, oxlt^tulinpf to tho lawyers, no 
other eonii,u<l lu'sidcM luXisst^nii co\\U\ W I'flaiiu'd, mul 
hi^ WMM eom|>elli'd lo nndeilake the deleii:.i' unaided lie 
had al\\a\:i he.n ver\ iH>|Uilai' in llu' di:;liu't in wliieli 
the murder had l>ei'ii eommittcd, aiul mans' of his old 
t'riend;i iVom (he iieiLdihoi hood viMtcd him, and uiyed liitii 
not (o .'.aeiiliee hi.-: popnlaril \ wilh lliein l>\ delendiny 
.-.ueh at'ased and I'lnlal eiiminal;i as the.-.i^ lu-j^coes. Ill 

\aiii Koii.-.'U'aii 111 ;j,ed iha( (ho greater the g\ult the great- 
er tlie ueeessity tor a lawyer. His iVie«ds ooiiKl listen to 
no reason, a)id r;aw no justineation in defending negwes 
\vlu> viosorved (o he liiuig aoiHO'tling to tluMV vnvii eind'es- 
,siiMi \\ lull Uoussean intin\a(i'd that he did not believe 
the ovMilo.s.shMi,aiid alliid>\l (o (he manner iii w lueli i( had 



i)iH'riN(iiii;iiii;r» (IIiiniiikai.h. Wli 

l)eon tiXl.oi Ird jJicy uiMild ;.M» iiAvny III (li.'.iMliil, niiil iiiiiny 
C'LU'MC'd liiiii lor " ;i. il;iiiiiiiil ;il m.IiI ion i.il,," 

Wlifii Uic lri;il (•;iiiH- on, lln- |Hn|ilc, of ||ic (Ii,!|, nd, m 
wliH'li I In- iiMiidcr li:i(| hccii ci mimihII.ci I cruvvi li( I I Iir ci pin | 
lioijHu iiiglil. ill 1(1 <lii.y. 'I'lic- iioli) iiiirviviiif' nil III I. ri ol i In- 
liuiiily, ii, yoiiiiL'; iiiiiii .il.'ii) iiiMiHul .l()yc,(^, ()C(ii| jird n. I'.i'iil. 
wilJiiii l.lic. i;iilii:;_' ( >r iJic ri Hill, roi iiii, vvliilr IIk-- crnwd ol 
In:! rnciidH Wlil'Ci Ivcpl. oiiliui In (.!' IIh^ Imc. Tlic {ri\\i\u 
oC ;niiiiiiiMit,y in llic crowd :i(';nii.;l. iJir ikj-Mocm wfiii only 
k(|)l, IVoiii Kniil. Ill,", <»iil, inlo I'lny liy iJic ('.ci'tliinry dl' 
llicir con Virlion ;iiid |iillii:,liininl, hy liivv; lull, IriirH W(ir(J 

jiiHlly <:nL(irLiiiiicd l.lini iiouic (|cv<'l<'|inicnl, of j.lic ti'iul 
iiiipjil. HO cxciLc, l.lic l)y-Hl,iiiidcm UH to <'.juiHn l.lio iiiHliuitti- 
licoii:'. li;i,ii;-'iii;-'_ of llic nOgrOC'H. 'I'lii:'. I'r;!,!' Wiiii fully jiifili- 
flod, (Uid Jill !i,l,lc)n|)L U) lili.n,u' iJicin vv.'iMonly Ci ii;.l,i .iIimJ |,y 
the pi'otnpl. iicl.ion nnd dfU'iii,*-'; oC lt(iiii!;ic;i,ii. TIh- .'oIc cvi 
d<!nco Col- iJic |)i()!!ccnl,Ioii w;i,i! I.lini oC l.lic hcmio wIh) Imd 
GOnft'HBiid, ami lie vv;i;'. pnl. iijion (lie -'.l.-iiid, iiJ'lii llic n.iind 
pniliininmii';!, lo j-'ivc hin Ml.nlciinni, m (.|nii coinl. 'I'lic 
JKv/ro w<-nl. on, in ;i, licKil,(i.l.ili,c.', in.inn'i, lo ;.'ivc, wilJi in;niy 
colli, r;idii',|,ion;i, l.ln; !'.l,ory of liow I. In- innidi-r li;ii| Iwrn 
(;oiiiniiU,itd, ;iiid iIh- lioiiMc, (ii'cd m iicvcrnl )>Ijicch. lie 
Htutcd iJuil, iill' r I Ik- lioilHC WJiM (illnOHl, <tlicicc|cd in (IjUncH, 
I, lie yonn(.'i-!i|, cjuld ol'llic nnirdiicil Iriinily, .-i, lil,lli- ;_'iil 
of two yoai'H, wlio li;id h'cn (jvci looj.id m IIm- liniiy oi 
tho tnuHHficrc, ;uoii;!cd liy I, lie li,"lil,, ii;i,l. n|» in l-'d ;ind 
a8k(:d, c.;i,lliii,L' to licr inollicr^ l,o I. now "if, ■■lie w;i;! co(j|i. 

irig hvcAiki'iiHi.'" At till.! |i;iit of tli(5 ovitlenco lIhji'o wwh a 

<U;atliliK'0 HtillncHH tliroii;di llie court V(t(>U\. 1^]\(: r-fv.wd, 
lioffilicd, Hccni(;d alViud to dr.ivV ;i. I)re;i,|,|i (or ;i, inoinent.j 
;ini| tin; ncj.'ro witliciii! liiliiMcH' (i|)j)(;;ire(| |,o (nlly coin|,r'(;. 



204 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

liend the danger of the situation and hesitated. At hist 
one old gentleman — I think he was one of the jury — 
shading his eye with his hands as if to shut out the scene, 
uttered, in a pitiful tone through his clenched teeth, the 
sound which lean only express by "tut! tut! tut! tut!'' 
The half hissing sound could be heard all over the coui't- 
room, and as it was heard a cold shudder ran through 
the crowd, followed a moment after by crimson flushes of 
passion on bronzed cheeks. In the midst of the silent 
excitement — for it was an excitement so profound as al- 
most robbed men of the power of speech — young Joyce 
sprang to his feet and exclaimed, 

"I want all my friends who think these negroes are 
guilty to help me hang them." 

lie was answered by a wild shout and by' the click of 
hundreds of pistols. As he had spoken, young Joyce 
drew a huge knife from a sheath fastened to his bod}'-, 
and, encouraged by the answering cry of his friends, sprang 
toward the negroes. As he did so, however, Rousseau, 
who stood between him and the prisoners, caught him by 
the throat with one hand, and with the other clasped the 
wrist of the arm which held the uplifted knife. It was 
but the work of a moment for a powerful man like Rous- 
seau to thrust Joyce back again in his seat and pinion 
him there while he turned and confronted the crowd, who 
had made a rush for the negroes, but who were being 
beaten back by tlie sheriff and one or two policemen. 
As soon as they saw^ the position of young Joyce, still 
held in his chair by the powerful arm of Rousseau, the 
crowd made a rush in that direction. Rousseau was 
again prompt and decisive. 



DISTINGUISHED GENKKALS. 205 

" ]\[r, Joyce,'' he said, " tell 3'our friends tliat wdiile tliey 
hang the negroes I'll attend to you." 

Joyce waved his friends back with the only hand loll 
free, and quiet again succeeded. It is hardly probable 
that even this promptness would have saved Kousseau 
had he not been personally popular with the crowd. As 
the crowd shrank back he released Joyce and turned ab- 
ruptly to the judge, who had ordered the sherilf to sum- 
mon a force of the police to protect the prisoners, and 
said, 

" Don't do any thing of the sort. Don't do any thing 
of the sort, your honor. We can protect the prisoners 
and ourselves. There are enough true men here to pro- 
tect them from the fury of this young man." 

" Where are your friends?" cried the still furious crowd. 

"You are!" exclaimed Rousseau, turning abru{)tly to 
them — I might say on them. And then, without a single 
second's hesitation, he began a brief speech, in which he 
passionately urged and entreated them to aid him in pre- 
venting Joyce, whom he characterized as "this unfortu- 
nate young man," from committing a deed which would 
forever be a curse to him as long as he had a memory of 
it, and which would forever disgrace them as a law-abid- 
ing community. While he was yet speaking the crowd 
calmed down, and when he had finished painting the 
enormity of the offense and the remorse of the young 
man if he had been permitted to commit so great a crime, 
they cheered him, and through the room went frequent 
and repeated whispers, "lie's right;" "he's right;" 
"Eousseau's always right!" 

The trial thenceforth proceeded in (piirt until the an- 



'JOti 



I'KKSONAl, i;Kl'OI,l,K(,'l'IONS (>!■' 



lUMllK'OllUMll. (^r llir VlM'llicl ol' " nol, -'Uill V," \\]\CU {\]\0{]\CY 

lcvv\i)\v srriu' riisiu'il ; 1ml ]iro\isioii li;i\in;;' Ihhmi luailo 
lor surli nil t>(.'riirn'iu'(>, llu' iu'<;'roo.s ^vo^l> (.•nrriiul oil' lo 
Jail i'oi' ])roto(.'tioii. Tlu' })t'o})lo wove salisfuHl that, the 
iiri;roos won' guilty, ami llio vonlict (obtainod by lunis- 
si'au by sliowiiiij,' tho iiu'cMisistiMicirs of the (.'oiiliv^sioii ami 
tin- circunistancos, the tluvats ami the terror, umlcr which 
ill was i-.\torlo(l) i^ily iiu'ix-asrd tlu'ir jiassion. 'iMu> jail 
was sin'rouiuli'il, ami llu- iii;!,hl' :illor lJu> artiuiltal llu' m-- 
gro(\s W(Mi' laki'U out b\ llic mob ami luiiij'; on tlu' trtws 
ill llio City Jlall !4'i\)iimls. Diiriiiji; tlu' viol, llio mayor 
iA' llio city, Mr. Pilclior, wliilo ciuU^aA-oriui^' to ((uict ihc 
Ci't>wd, was struck by a, missile in the head, and dietl 
soi>ii alter from the elVeels (>f the iiijiir\ reeei\ed. 

This and se\i'ial oilier trials i^ytMilually i'i'suIUhI in iii- 
crt-asiii!", IJoiisseau's i>o|nilarih'. Two or tliroi' (>f his most 
imporlani eases embraeeil ihe del'eiise ol' men accused and 
iindoublcdh- "Miilh' of aidiii"; negroes to (>scapi' from sla\'- 
cr\-. ll, is liardU' eoni|>ri'hensd>le ihal less than a tlecadc 
ago this olVense was considered I he most I'liminal act a man 
eoulil commit in l\ontiu'ky, or that men wore sonteiicod 
to fiftoon y(>ars' hard ]:\hov lor such tWVonscs, or thai con- 
N'icts art' still wtMkiii!'' out their term for these olVensi's 
in SouthoiMi ponilcHtiarios. 'I\> engage in the defense i>f 
siu'h criminals a ("cw years ago, c\i'ii in the latituilt> o\' 
I jouis\ill(\ was to be set down as an " abolitionist," ami 
but lew oi' the Kcnlueky lawyers of the dt'cadi'Just bc- 
lbrc> the war i-arcd to bear such a characler. l\ousscnn, 
without courting the repulaliou, did not fear it; and liis 
manly bi^ariii;-; in all such cases, and in the polilieal excite- 
meni »>!' llic lime, so adxanced him in luipular t\stimati(Mi 



niSTlNdlMSIIMD (IKNKHAl.S. 'JOT 

l,li;il, ill 18(10 ho was eloctod lo \\\c Stnt.o SiMiatn of Ken- 
lucky wiLliout opposition and as l.lio cniulidalo of both 
parties, whoso only livah-y with i(\^a.i(l to him was as to 
whit'h should lii'st sooui'o his a,cc;o})taucH; oC tho nomina- 
tion. It was whilti liolihug this j)t)sition as stato senator 
that Ivousscnu l)(VL!,;in his hold opposition to Kontucky 
ni'utrnlity, vvhioh l)i'ou_i!,ht iiini so pronnncntly hcloi'o tlio 
countiy, and oponod to him that oai'dM' in which ho has 
won so inuoli iionor and such a hijj,'h rank. 

'V\\c true stoi'y of Kentucky ncutr;ilil,y is ono oC th<! 
most romantic episodes t)rtho wai'. The visionary scheni- 
(!rs wlio })lanno(l the SontluMMi Coufedoracy wore guilty 
of (h)/ens of chimerical and fallacious schemes, whoso 
shallowness is now so apparent that one wondtM's how 
the Southern people were ever deceivoil by them. The 
rebel leaders dcchvred — and dc^chired it so often tliat they 
ai'.l^ually believiul it thcmseilves — tliaJ, the Noithern pcopk; 
woidd not (i<j;ht. 'i^hey boasted, and boastcid so IVecpient- 
ly that they be^an after a time to l)eli(>,ve, that one; South- 
ern man could rt-ally whip five Yankees. Tlicy deceived 
themselves for so many years with tlu; doctiinci of Statics 
Eights that lead(M'S and peo))le began to Ix^ruivc! that a 
fraction of the body corpoi'ate could e.xist without the 
aid ol' the rest, and oll'cird to this modern and enlight- 
ened ago a national illustration of /Msop's liiblo of the 
stomach's folly. When the schemes of the rebel lead- 
ers were cnlmiuatim-;, and they found that the people of 
the l^order States wore not (lisj)osed, like those; of th(5 
('otton Sta,t(>s, to be hurricid, regai'dless of consecpiencos, 
into a wai' in which tliey had nolhing to ga,in and every 
tiling to lose, tluiy institutinl, with a, shrewdness woitliy 



208 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the fiame of a Philadelphia lawyer, the no less visionary 
schemes that there could be law without power, and that 
a portion of the body, and that portion the heart, could 
suspend its operations while the rest was being violently 
agitated. In Tennessee, where the iirst-nanied scheme was 
successful, the rebels deceived the Union men into advo- 
cating the doctrine of " no coercion." In Kentucky, where 
their complete success in carrying out the second design 
was frustrated only by the sagacity of Eousseau, the reb- 
els deceived the Unionists into advocating the doctrine 
of " neutrality." Twice the people of Tennessee voted 
against co-operation with the rebel states ; and when the 
rebels again dared to test the question at the polls, they 
embodied in the contest the principle that " the general 
government could not coerce a sovereign state," and into 
the support of this doctrine the anti-secessionists foolishly 
acquiesced. The first act of the President in calling for 
troops to enforce the laws was construed into coercion, 
and the state seceded. Three times the State of Ken- 
tucky voted by large majorities against secession, but the 
rebels did not despair, and, having failed to get the peo- 
ple to secede, or to declare against the right of coercion, 
they endeavored, with but partial success, to commit the 
authorities and the Unionists to Avhat was called " a strict 
neutrality." 

The rebels in Kentucky were under the leadership of 
a Cassius-like character named Simon Bolivar Buckner. 
He had been in the secrets and the interests of the dis- 
union leaders for years before the first overt act of seces- 
sion was committed, and for three or four years previous 
to 1861 had been engaged in schemes for carrying the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 209 

state out of the Union, and for furnishing troops to the 
rebel army that was to be. The principal of these schemes 
was the organization of the very iri'cgular militia of tlie 
state into a strong body, known as the " State Guard," 
Buckner, by every means in his reach — and his associates 
in treason, who were also in power, gave him great assist- 
ance — fostered this scheme. He created a martial spirit 
among the young men of Kentucky, and by the aid of 
Tilghman, Hunt, Hanson, and others, who eventually be- 
came rebel generals, extended this spirit to every part of 
the state. He was a man eminently fitted for such a task, 
and by his duplicity and skill undermined the faith in 
and love fo^the Union existing among the young men 
who formed the State Guard, Years before the majority 
of them suspected that secession would ever be attempted, 
they had grown to look upon the institutions, doctrines, 
and even the flag of the Union with indifference, if not 
contempt. The flag of Kentucky became the flag of the 
guard, and Buckner even attempted to expel that of the 
government from the organization. The various uni- 
forms of the different militia organizations of different 
districts were discarded, under Buckner's orders, for a 
■uniform of gray, which eventually proved to be that of 
the rebel army. The various arms of the different com- 
panies were discarded for weapons of a uniform calibre. 
The organization, which had originally embraced only 
companies, was extended to divisions and regiments, and 
brigades were formed and drilled in encampments as 
such. In fact, nearly a year before South Carolina se- 
ceded, the State Guard of Kentucky, with Simon Bolivar 
Buckner as Inspector General comrnandint^, was simply a 



210 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

body of recruits for the embryo rebel army. It is sliglit- 
ly foreign to the subject, but I may as well add here the 
fact I have never heard stated before, that, at the same 
time, and undoubtedly for the same purpose, the martial 
spirit of the youth of all the Southern States was being 
encouraged. ^Militia organization of the various states 
were being thoroughly remodeled and systematized, the 
best of arms obtained, uniforms of the same kind pur- 
chased, and, to all appearances, the rebel army, as it after- 
ward existed, was being recruited in 1858-9 and '60. 

This organization, under Buckner, existed when neu- 
trality was instituted, and the new doctrines gave it 
and the traitors who led it additional strcnf;lh, while it 
served to cloak their designs. Great numbers of the 
leading Unionists of the state joined with the rebel lead- 
ers m support of this doctrine, ridiculous and inconsist- 
ent as it now appears to have been. A large majority 
of the people who had voted against secession also be- 
came committed to the visionary doctrine, nntil it came 
to be the accepted policy of the state ; so that, when 
Lovell Rousseau, in the Senate, in May, 1801, denounced 
neutrality as a mask of the secessionists on the one hand, 
and a disgraceful yielding oi^ the Unionists on the other, 
he found few who agreed with him, and less who second- 
ed him in his avowed purpose of abolishing neutrality, 
and placing the state, at all times, in her proper position 
as a true member of the Union, amid the disasters of 
war as well as in the prosperity of peace. 

The public were not prepared to follow him, and he 
was forced to accept neutrality as a compromise between 
union and secession, between right and wrong, but do- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 211 

ing so under public protest in tlic Senate of the state, 
and declaring on every occasion which offered that it 
was a debasing position, which he intended to abandon 
as soon as he could induce the state to follow him. lie 
found little support in this honorable war upon neutral- 
ity until the secessionists, under Buckner, went a step 
farther, and proposed, after hostilities had fairly begun, 
to make the neutrality of Kentucky an " armed neutral- 
ity," urging that the state troops be armed to resist en- 
croachments from either rebel or Union troops. In this 
proposition Rousseau saw an opportunity for forcing a 
direct issue with the rebels, and he was quick to take ad- 
vantage of it. lie saw in it actual aid to the rebellion. 
Against this scheme, which proposed the appropriation 
of three millions of dollars to arm the " Kentucky State 
Guard," he at once began a crusade as earnest as it was 
untiring. He denounced the State Guard and its leaders 
as secessionists and traitors, stormed at them in Senate- 
halls and on the stump, and not only defeated the bill, 
but succeeded very happily in dividmg the State Guard 
into two rival organizations, known as the "Home 
Guards" (Unionists) and "State Guardsmen" (rebels). 
He called it at the time "separating the sheep from the 
goats." It was a most fortunate achievement ; for it not 
only saved thousands of young men belonging to the 
State Guard from being unwittingly drawn into the rebel 
army, but precipitated the designs of the rebels, and 
hastened the defection which was inevitable. This was 
accomplished under personal difficulties, opposition, and 
dangers, which only made the labor more delightful to a 
person of Rousseau's temperament. He delights in op- 



212 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

position ; is in his element only when in the minority, 
and strongly opposed ; and his belligerent disposition led 
him to gladly accept not only the numerous stump and 
street discussions and disputes, but even street quarrels 
and fights with the secessionists. The rebel sympathiz- 
ers seldom dared attack him openl}-, his bold front, at 
aft times maintamcd, making them prefer to exercise 
their strategy and trickery against him rather than come 
to open warfare. Upon him, as the head and front of 
the offending party, they poured all their abuse and vi- 
tuperation, but dared to do little more. 

This split in the State Guard soon proved a serious 
affair, and the " defection," as the traitors called the re- 
tirement of the Union men, became quite general. Every 
incident increased the feeling ; every day saw the differ- 
ences of opinions and the breach grow wider. On one 
occasion Buckner was reviewing the regiment of the 
Guard which was stationed at Lexington, Ky. The feel- 
ing between the partisans composing the regiment had 
become quite demonstrative, and on this occasion Cap- 
tain Saunders D. Bruce, a Union officer of the regiment 
(subsequently colonel of the Twentieth Kentucky In- 
fantry, now a resident of New York, and editor of the 
"Field, Turf, and Farm" newspaper), made his appear- 
ance in the line with two small United States flags as 
guidons for his company. Buckner, noticing them, ap- 
proached Captain Bruce, ordered him to the front, in full 
view of the regiment, explained to him that Kentucky 
was neutral in the " unfortunate struggle" then going on, 
and directed him to re})lace the guidons by flags of tlie 
state. Bruce, without replying, turned to his company. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 213 

and, as if about to obey, gave the orders, " Attention, 
company;" "Shoulder arms;" "Right face;" "Forward 
march," and away went the " Lexington Chasseurs" out 
of the line, and for that matter out of the State Guard. 
No attempt was made to stop the company, or to call 
Bruce to account for his "insubordination." 

No sooner had the work of dividing the State Guard 
been thus accomplished, than Rousseau hastened to 
Washington to obtain permission from the President to 
raise troops in the state for the United States service. 
While on the way to Washington, he had an interview 
with General McClellan, then commanding the Western 
Department, at Cincinnati, and found him opposed to his 
scheme. McClellan sent to Washington his aid. Colonel 
Key (subsequently dismissed the service for disloyal ut- 
terances), to represent Rousseau's scheme as rash and ill- 
advised. At the same time, others were sent to Wash- 
ington by the " mild-mannered" Unionists to urge the 
President not to grant Rousseau permission to raise 
troops, arguing that it would at once precipitate the in- 
vasion of the state by the rebels. Rousseau consequent- 
ly found great difficulty in obtaining the required au- 
thorit}^, but went at the question boldly. 

He was introduced to the President and the cabinet 
by Secretary Chase, who was his energetic friend in the 
matter, and who subsequently aided him materially in 
getting around the President's objections to the project. 
Before he had finished shaking hands with the stalwart 
Kentuckian and soldier, the President good-humoredly 
said, "Rousseau, I want you to tell me where you got 
that joke about Senator Johnson, of your state." 



214 persOjStal recollections of 

The "joke" alluded to was one of the neatest of Mr. 
Lincoln's numerous dry humors, and was as follows : A 
state senator from Paducah, Ky., John M. Johnson by 
name, who had made himself notorious as a secessionist, 
wrote to Mr. Lincoln in May, 1S61, a very solemn and 
emphatic protest, in the name of the sovereign State of 
Kentucky, against the occupation and fortification of 
Cairo, on the Illinois side of the Ohio River. Mr. Lin- 
coln replied in a letter written in his own peculiar vein, 
apologizing for the movement, promising it should not 
be done again, and declaring that if he had half suspect- 
ed that Cairo, Illinois, was in Dr. Johnson's Kentucky 
senatorial district, he would have thought twice before 
sending troops there. Rousseau had heard the story, 
and had repeated it in a speech in the Senate, and an ex- 
planation of how it had gained publicity was what the 
President requested. Rousseau explained. 

"The joke was too good to keep, sir, and so Johnson 
told it himself" 

The interview, thus auspiciously began, proved a fail- 
ure. Cameron and Chase were the only ones in the 
cabinet who favored the enlistment of troops in Ken- 
tucky ; and on their declaring this opinion, the President 
advised them not to be too hasty, remarking, 

"You know we have seen another man from Ken- 
tucky to-day." 

" I don't ask you to say who that man was, Mr. Presi- 
dent," said Rousseau, suspecting it to have been Colonel 
Kc}^, and anxious to forestall liim, as he had declared his 
intention to oppose the scheme ; " but Colonel Key is not 
a Kentuckian, and does not know or comprehend our 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 215 

peopk. If you want troops in my state, I can and will 
raise them ; and I think it is your duty to our people in 
Kentucky to begin the work of enlistment there, for if 
the rebels raise troops and we do not, why, naturally, 
many young men will be led away from duty by their 
sympathies for kindred and associates ; while if you begin 
the work of enlistment, the loyal youth will have some- 
thing to guide and direct them in the light course." 

In this way Eousseau represented to the President what 
he had done in the way of defeating the schemes of the 
rebels to arm themselves at the expense of Kentucky, 
and in dividing the state militia into two classes. He 
had inspired the loyal Home Guards with an esprit du 
coiys, which would save the greater part of them from any 
connection with the secessionists ; but he represented also 
that there were thousands of young men in the state who 
had not decided to follow either the rebel or loyal ban- 
ner, and that, knowing this, the rebels were recruiting in 
every part of the state. Thousands of the young and 
thoughtless would be, and hundreds were being, drawn 
into the rebel army by this means, and he argued that the 
government ought to recruit in this neutral state as an 
encouragement to the young men to join the loyal army. 

But the President took time to consider, and Rousseau 
withdrew. The next day Mr. Chase drew up in regular 
form the authority Rousseau desired, and Cameron signed 
it and gave him a commission as colonel, the rank dating 
from June 15th, 1861. Both Chase and Cameron prom- 
ised to endeavor to obtain the President's sanction of 
the act, that Rousseau might feel perfectly free to go to 
work. Rousseau was granted another interview with 



216 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the President, wlio, after some farther conversation on the 
subject, indorsed Kousseau's original application to be per- 
mitted to raise troops as follows : 

" When Judge Pirtle, James Guthrie, George D. Pren- 
tice, Ilarnej, the Speeds, and the Ballards shall think it 
proper to raise troops for the United States service in 
Kentucky, Lovell H. Rousseau is authorized to do so." 

This be handed to Rousseau and asked, " Will that do?" 

Rousseau read it carefully, and then replied, somewhat 
disappointed, 

" No, Mr. President, that won't do." 

" Why not, why not, Rousseau? These men are good 
Union men." 

"Yes, sir, good men and loyal, Mr. Lincoln, but nearly 
all of them differ with me on this subject, are committed 
to the abominable doctrine of neutrality, and it would be 
too late when the majority of them conclude that it would 
be proper to raise troops. Then I fear the state will have 
seceded. I had hoped, sir, that what the War Depart- 
ment has done in my case would be acceptable to you." 

" What has Cameron done?" asked the President. 

" He has, by the advice of Mr. Chase, authorized me to 
raise two regiments in Kentucky." 

" Oh !" said Mr. Lincoln, after reading the documents, 
" if the War Department has acted in the matter, I have 
nothing to say in opposition." 

Rousseau, fearful that too much might be said, at once 
arose, shook the President's hand, and vanished. 

On his return to Kentucky, Rousseau, in deference to 
the President's wishes, as implied in the indorsement of 
his paper, consulted James Speed, and through him called 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 217 

a, meeting of the gentlemen named, and also of others in 
the city of Louisville and interior counties of the state. 
Much to the surprise of Mr. Speed, only himself, his broth- 
er Joshua, Bland and John P. Ballard, Samuel Lusk, Mor- 
gan Vance, and John 11. Ward, a minority of the meeting, 
hardly respectable in numbers, were in favor of the proj- 
ect. Pirtle, Guthrie, Prentice, Harney, Bramlette, Boyle, 
and others, opposed it strongly, and in the end adopted 
resolutions to the effect that the time had not come ; that 
it was then impolitic, unwise, and improper to enlist troops 
for the United States service in Kentucky ; but adding 
that when the time did arrive, they all wished Eousseau, 
in whom they expressed every confidence, to head the 
movement. Eousseau had made up his mind that such 
would bo the result of their deliberations (from which he 
had retired before the final action), and had decided upon 
his course ; so that when Joshua Speed next day handed 
him the resolutions, Rousseau was neither surprised nor 
chagrined, but very much disgusted. A few minutes after 
leaving Mr. Speed on this occasion, he met Bramlette, sub- 
sequently governor of the state, and that gentleman be- 
gan to defend the majority of the meeting of the night 
before for their action in the matter, when Rousseau inter- 
rupted him by asking if any thing had been said in oppo- 
sition to the enlistment of troops by him in other states. 
Bramlette replied in the negative, when the two parted, 
and Rousseau immediately began the enlistment of Ken- 
tuckians, but established his camp and swore in his re- 
cruits in Indiana. Being compelled to do this was very 
humiliating to Rousseau, but it did not dishearten him, 
and he went at his work energetically. There were greater 

K 



218 PEESOXAL KECOLLECTTOXS OF 

obstacles in bis wav at that time than the mere opposition 
of men as to time and place. AVhen he began the work 
of onlistniont, the government had no credit in Kentucky, 
and the expenses of enlisting and feeding his two thou- 
sand recruits were defrayed by himself and a gentleman 
living in Indiana named Samuel Patterson, whose name, 
for the sake of his devoted loyalty, deserves to go down 
to history. Despite these obstacles, despite the fact that 
every paper in the state ridiculed the project and laughed 
at the projector, nevertheless Kousseau's recruits — the 
rebels called them " Eousseau's ragamulTlns" — increased 
in uumbei's and grew in discipline until they became for- 
midable, and eventually saved the city from rebel occu- 
pation. 

From the time that loyal recruiting began, the issue be- 
tween unionism and secession became direct, and neutral- 
ity was practically a dead letter. The mask of the rebels 
was stripped off, and the people were no longer deceived 
by the schemes of the secessionists. Throughout Ken- 
tuck}', and particularly in Louisville, where the issue was 
most saliently presented, singular scenes were the result 
of the situation ; and from this time until the occupation 
of the state by the contending armies, Louisville was in a 
curious condition. Rebel and Union recruiting stations 
were found in the same streets, and presenting the same 
appearance, save tliat the rebels darod not plant their flag, 
and di^;plnyod only that of Kentucky. Squads of Union 
and rebel recruits daily passed each other on the streets 
en route to their camps, and saluted each other with groans, 
and hisses, and ridicule, but attempted no violence. Pay 
was made noisv with the huzzas of the rebels " for Jeff. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 219 

Davis and the Confederacy," and night made hideous by 
rebel songs from rebel throats that had not the lame ex- 
cuse of being husky with liquor. Many of their songs 
were set to very beautiful airs, and often large crowds of 
enthusiastic 3^oung men would gather in the principal 
drinking saloons of the city and join in these choruses, 
producing a very beautiful melody, but uttering devilish 
poor sentiments. Frequently these songs were inspired 
by the appearance of some well-known Union man, 
around whom they would gather, like the witches in Mac- 
beth, and at whom they sung their songs as if in defiance. 
Tiiese scenes and songs often led to dangerous encounters 
and riotous proceedings. The division of sentiment cre- 
ated by this state of affairs entered into families, and ex- 
tended even to the congregations of churches, I remem- 
ber one sad instance, in the family of Col. Henry Clay, 
son of the sage of Ashland, and the one who fell so glo- 
riously at Buena Vista. In 1861, his two sons, Thomas 
and Henry Clay, were living at Louisville. One of them, 
Thomas, became foscinated with the manner and imbued 
with the ideas of Buckner, and followed him to the Con- 
federacy, and, as it happened, to ruin and to the grave. 
Henry, the younger brother, a more thoughtful, quiet 
young man, less enthusiastic, but more persistent than 
Thomas, joined the Union army, and served, until his early 
death, on the staff of Gen. Eichard W. Johnson. One of 
the most amusing instances of the effects produced by the 
prevailing sentiments occurred in one of the churches at 
Louisville, where, on the occasion of a prayer-meeting, a 
notorious secessionist and a prominent Union man had 
what was called at the time " a praying match." During 



220 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the prayer-mccting the minister asked the secession broth- 
er to pray, which he did, asking, among other things, the 
" removal of our evil rulers." lie did not explain whom 
he meant by " evil rulers," but the congregation knew ; 
so, not waiting to be called on, the Union brother request- 
ed the congregation to join him in prayer, and prayed for 
" the rulers set over us, and the removal from his place 
of power of Kentucky's traitorous governor." This was 
a positive defiance ; the rebelliously -inclined brother felt 
it his duty to reply, and did so in a regular secession 
prayer, asking the blessing of heaven on " the Confeder- 
ate government, rulers, and people, "and " confusion upon 
the councils of the Northern abolitionists and vandals." 
To close the bout and end the affray of words, the Union- 
ist replied in a regular true blue Union prayer, asking 
that God would bless and prosper the Union cause, smile 
upon her arms, lead her soldiers to triumph, smite the 
traitors, and bring back to their allegiance our misguided 
brethren of the South ; and capped the climax which he 
had reached by giving out the hymn beginning 

"Oh, conquer this rebellious will." 

The secessionist did not reply, and thus the Unionist won 
his first victory. He was a graduate of West Point, but 
I do not know that what he learned there aided him 
much in his praying match. 

The excitement of this conflict of ideas and passions 
reached its culminating point at Louisville on the da}^ 
following the battle of Bull Eun, and produced one of 
the most remarkable scenes I have ever witnessed. The 
first telegraphic news of the battle, published on the 
morning after the engagement, was of a highly favorable 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS, 221 

character, and the Unionists of Louisville ate tlieir break- 
fasts and digested the good news of the first great victory 
with the firm conviction that Mr. Seward was right, and 
that the war would be over in ninety days, if not sooner. 
That morning every thing was couleur de rose to even less 
sanguine natures than Mr. Seward. About noon of the 
same day the bad news began to arrive, but the people 
knew nothing definite regarding the final result of the 
battle until about three o'clock P.M., when the afternoon 
editions of the papers made their appearance. Then the 
news of the rebel victory spread like wildfire, and in half 
an hour — at the time, it seemed as if it were instantaneous 
— the whole city was a perfect pandemonium. The rebel 
flag, which had until then shrunk from the light, flaunted 
from buildings and dwellings, from carriage windows in 
the hands of women, on omnibuses, and carts, and trucks, 
and wagons in the hands of men wild with excitement. 
Men on horseback, with the rebel flag flying, dashed 
wildly through the principal streets, crying with husky 
voices, " Hurrah for Jeff. Davis." The streets were alive 
with drunken and noisy rebels, who hooted at Unionists, 
cheered secessionists, embraced each other, and yelled 
themselves hoarse in bravos for " Jafe Davis." For near- 
ly two hours the rebels had full possession of the city, 
and crowded about their ringleader, a notorious fellow 
named John Tompkins, with every expression of their 
delight. It was decided, and Tompkins announced his in- 
tention, to raise a flag-staff and display the rebel flag from 
the roof of the Courier newspaper oflice, and to aid him 
in this the rebels gathered around him. But it was des- 
tined that this feat should not be accomplished. One of 



222 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the policemen of the city, named Green, baving received 
ordei's to suppress all noisy demonstrations such as Tomp- 
kins was guilty of in hallooing for Davis and the Confed- 
eracy, approached him and ordered him to desist. The 
only reply was a repetition of the offense. Green again 
repeated his order, explaining that these were his instruc- 
tions, when Tompkins drew a pistol, and, retreating a 
few steps, fired at the policeman. Simultaneously Green 
had also retreated a few steps, drawing his pistol at the 
same time, and, in answer to the other's ineffective fire, 
shot the rioter directly through the heart, killing him in- 
stantly. Never was a riot so cheaply suppressed nor so 
instantaneously. In ten minutes after the death of the 
ringleader the rioters dispersed, rebel flags disappeared, 
the huzzas for Davis were hushed : not a rebel remained 
on the streets, not a flag was to be seen unfurled, not a 
huzza was to be heard, and Louisville slept sounder that 
night than she had slept for months. 

The secessionists of Louisville did not, however, en- 
tirely desist from their efforts to aid the rebels, but on 
the 17tb of August they called a meeting of sympathy 
with the South. At night, in pursuance of the call, they 
early mustered their strength at the court-house. Their 
leaders were on the stand, which was handsomely deco- 
rated with white or " peace" flags, awaiting the filling of 
the hall by their friends, and somewhat anxious at the 
appearance of numerous well-known Unionists, or "abo- 
litionists," as they were then called by the rebel sympa- 
thizers. Every thing was in readiness to open the peace 
meeting, and James Trabue, the principal secession lead- 
er, had risen to call the assembly to order, when James 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 223 

S! Speed, late United States Attorney General, quietly 
walked upon the stand and approached the desk pre- 
pared for the chairman. He called the attention of the 
house by rapping on the desk with his cane, knocked 
aside with an air of contempt the "peace" flags on either 
side of him, and was about to speak, when he was inter- 
rupted by the clamor of the rebel leaders, who insisted 
that the house was theirs, and that tlje meeting was to be 
addressed by them. Amid the excitement, and above 
the clamor which ensued, was heard the stentorian voice 
of Rousseau, proposing Judge Speed as president of the 
meeting. He immediately put the question to a vote. 
A deafening "Ay!" drowned the "Noes" of the rebels, 
and, perfectly calm and cool, Mr. Speed reached forward, 
removed the white flags from the stand, and unfurled 
two small star-spangled banners in their stead. In an 
instant, as if by preconcerted arrangement, from differ- 
ent parts of the hall, large and small United States flags 
were unfurled, and ten minutes afterward the secession- 
ists had left the hall, amid the groans of the loyal citi- 
zens. Judges Speed and Harlan, and Messrs. Wolfe, 
Rousseau, and others, followed in strong Union anti- 
neutral speeches, and the meeting adopted several very 
strong resolutions. Next to Rousseau's establishment of 
the Union recruiting camp opposite Louisville, this affair 
was the first determined step taken by the Unionists of 
Kentucky to keep the state in the Union. 

Meantime Rousseau had quietly, but rapidly, filled up 
his two regiments as authorized, and they were sworn 
into the service. Fremont was then in want of troops in 
Missouri, and sent his aid, Richard Corwin, of Ohio, to in- 



224 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

spect Rousseau's force, and, if found available for field 
service, to make application at AVashington for it An 
intimation came to Rousseau that he would be sent to Mis- 
souri (he was growing anxious to go to any department 
in which active work would afford him opportunities to 
win promotion and reputation), and he determined to in- 
vade Kentucky soil at least once before going, and so an- 
nounced his intention of parading his corps through the 
streets of Louisville. A delegation of rebel and neutral 
citizens waited on him, and begged him to forbear his 
intention, representing that the indignant citizens would 
rise up in their anger and attack his soldiers. 

" By Heaven !" exclaimed Rousseau, " the d — d scoun- 
drels shall have enough of it, then, before I am done with 
them," 

The march of the brigade through the city was undis- 
turbed, and it returned to camp without having received 
any more deadly volley than a few curses from the neu- 
trals and secessionists. One of the effects of the parade, 
and the announcement of the intention to send Rousseau 
to Missouri, was the presentation of an appeal to the 
President, signed by the principal of the Union men, 
protesting against the removal of Rousseau from the vi- 
cinity of the city. A copy of this protest was shown by 
a friend to Colonel Rousseau. When he read it he grew 
furiously enraged, cursing the protesting individuals as a 
set of marplots who had opposed him at every turn, and 
he immediately took steps to break up camp and be on 
the march to Missouri before the countermanding order 
could come. He was stopped in the midst of his prep- 
arations, however, and ordered by President Lincoln to 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 225 

remain in camp at " Camp Joe Holt," the name given to 
his encampment, in honor of the Secretary of War, Col- 
onel Joseph Uolt, now Judge Advocate General of the 
Army. It was a fortunate order, that, for the fair " City 
of the Falls." 

Buckner had not been idle all this time, and recruiting 
for " Camp Boone," the rebel Kentucky encampment, had 
proceeded really under his directions, but ostensibly in 
opposition to his wishes; and a few thousand Kentucki- 
ans, and a large force of Tennesseeans and other Southern 
troops, had gathered upon the southern border of the 
state for the purpose of seizing Louisville and other 
places, and establishing a defensive line along the Ohio 
Eiver. Had that project not been frustrated by the posi- 
tion and force of Rousseau, the fate of the Confederacy 
would not have been sealed as soon as it was. The line 
of the Ohio, occupied in force by the rebels, would have 
been very difficult to break. If the Ohio River had been 
blockaded by rebel guns, the Union forces along it would 
have been fed and moved with great difficulty. Subse- 
quently to the frustration of this project by Rousseau, 
Kentucky furnished ninety thousand men to the Union 
army, few or none of which would have been raised 
with the state under rebel occupation, and numbers of 
whom would have been conscripted into the rebel army. 
These would have been some of the results of the occu- 
pation of the Ohio, and serious disasters they would have 
proved to the Union cause. In the prosecution of this 
scheme, Buckner labored with a zeal that one could con- 
fidently expect from a man of his Cassius-like propor- 
tions. In the prosecution of the plan he went to Wash- 

K 2 



22(5 PEKSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ington, represented himself as a Union man, and obtain- 
ed fi'oni Generals Scott and McDowell much valuable in- 
formation. When about to return to Kentucky he call- 
ed upon General McDowell, and, in parting with him, 
placed both hands upon McDowell's shoulders, looked 
him steadily in the eye, and said, 

" Mack, I am going back to Kentucky to raise troops 
for my country." 

McDowell wished him " God speed" in the undertak- 
ing, and they parted. Buckncr returned to Louisville, 
halted but a day, and hastened southward to the rebel 
" Camp Boone" to doff his garb of neutrality for the Con- 
federate gray. A change can not be said to have been 
necessary, for, as the rebels practiced neutrality in Ken- 
tucky, it was honajide rebellion, and wore the same out- 
ward garb. Three nights after the countermanding of 
the order to Kousseau to march to Missouri, Buckner in- 
vaded Kentucky and occupied Bowling Green. On the 
next day, September 17, 18G1, he advanced with a large 
force upon Louisville, and Eousseau, the rejected, with 
the "Ilome Guards," which he had preserved from the 
defection which seized the State Guard, were the only 
defenders of the city to be found. On the night of Sep- 
tember 17, 1861, Eousseau crossed the Ohio Eiver, and 
marched through the uproarious streets of the excited 
and endangered city to meet the invader. With this lit- 
tle band he penetrated forty miles into the interior of the 
state, hourly expecting to meet the enemy, and intending 
to fiirlit him whenever and wherever he did meet him. 
He made the passage of Eolling Fork Eiver, and occu- 
pied the heights of Muldraugh's Hills, where Buckncr 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 227 

was reported to be, but found the rebel had retired to 
Green Eiver. 

Ever since this memorable era, Kentucky has persist- 
ed in showing herself on every important occasion as 
belonging to the neuter gender of states, and her unen- 
viable position on several questions of national interest 
within the last five or six years has all been owing to 
the influence of the same class of politicians as those who 
opposed action in 1861. A few independent, energetic 
men, with opinions of their own, and a spirit of progress 
consonant with that of the Union, like Eousseau, Cyrus 
H. Burnham, and one or two others, have hardly proven 
the leaven to the corrupt whole. Many of those who 
were neutral when the success of secession was doubtful, 
when the constitutional amendment was pending, would 
now like to present a different record ; and one or two 
of this class have written me, since the publication of this 
sketch in " Harper's Magazine," to prove that they were 
not neutrals in 1861. I have not considered their claims 
worth notice. There are any number of men in Ken- 
tucky who would now like to have it appear that they 
stood with Eousseau in 1861, but it would be falsifying 
history to say so. I have written here the true story 
of Kentucky neutrality, and do not propose to alter it. 
The sponsor of that neutrality — the editor of the Louis- 
ville Journal — has corroborated this story as I tell it. 
On the evening of the 17th of June, 1862, exactly one 
year after having rejected Eousseau, and driven him to 
encamp his troops in another state, the Union men of 
Louisville welcomed him from the battle-field of Shiloh 
at a grand banquet, at which George D. Prentice, the 



228 PEKSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

editor of the Journal, thus narrated the trials and clYorts 
of Rousseau, and condemned, as mistaken, himself and 
his neutral comrades who had opposed Rousseau : 

" We have come together," he said, "to honor a man, 
a patriot, a hero, whom we can scarcely honor too much. 
A great debt is due to General Rousseau from our citj-, 
from our state, from our nation. At the hands of Louis- 
ville he deserves a civic wreath and a marble statue. 
He has stood between her and desolation. "We all know 
what bitter hostilities on the one side, and what deep ap- 
prehensions and misgivings on the other, he had to con- 
tend against when he undertook the bold enterprise of 
raising a brigade to resist the rebellion. The best patri- 
ots among us doubted, and hesitated, and faltered,. and 
attempted to divert him from his purpose, and he was 
even constrained by their appeals to go beyond the river, 
and erect upon the soil of another state the glorious 
standard around which he invoked Kentuckians to rail}'. 
Denounced, maligned, and cursed by all the rebels, he 
received, at best, but a cold, reluctant, and timid support 
from the masses of our loyal men. When he came, one 
day, from his encampment with two full and splendid 
regiments to pass a single hour in our city, the city of 
his home and his love, he marched his gleaming columns 
through our streets amid an almost deathless stillness, 
his enemies awed to silence by the appalling spectacle 
before them, and his friends scarcely deeming it prudent 
to give expression to the enthusiasm secretly swelling in 
their bosoms. It must have been with a keen sense of 
disappointment, if not of injustice and ingratitude, that 
he returned to the Indiana shore. But ere lono- there 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 229 

came to us all a night of mystery and terror. Suddenly 
the electric telegraph between our city and Nashville 
ceased to give forth its signs, and the railroad train, anx- 
iously awaited for hours, came not. In every loyal soul 
there was a deep presentiment of impending calamit}^ 
It pervaded and burdened the atmosphere. Brave men 
gazed into each other's faces and whispered their fears. 
Then it was that all loyal eyes and hearts turned in- 
stantly to General Kousseau and his brigade. A signal 
apprised him of apprehended danger, and in an incredi- 
bly brief space of time, in less than two hours, he cross- 
ed the Ohio, and passed with his brigade so noiselessly 
through our streets, that even our citizens, living within 
thirty yards of his route, heard him not, and before mid- 
night he was far on his way to meet the expected inva- 
ders. He took his position between Louisville and that 
rebel army which would have seized and despoiled her. 
He was her shield and her sword. He was her salvation. 
For this, among other things, we tender him our grati- 
tude to-night ; for this, we tender him our gratitude for- 
ever." 

This episode of neutrality must always remain the 
most remarkable event of Rousseau's career. Very few 
lives find two such opportunities, and half the credit due 
Rousseau has been lost to him by the fact that it oc- 
curred amid a revolution which saw many more startling- 
events. Only the Union people of the interior of Ken- 
tucky seemed to appreciate the magnitude of his service, 
and on every occasion expressed, in their strange way, 
their admiration of and gratitude to the man. The Arm}' 
of the Ohio, under Sherman and Buell, was known to them 



230 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

only as "Eousseau's Army." They never talked and 
hardly ever heard of Sherman, or Buell, or Thomas ; and 
Rousseau could never *make them clearly understand 
that he was not the supreme power and highest author- 
ity. His popularity among the Union people of the 
state had a rather pleasing illustration in October, 1862, 
when he was on the march to Perryville. At Mas- 
ville the mountaineers from the district gathered around 
his quarters in great numbers, and almost every fam- 
ily of the many which visited the general had with it 
an infant named after him, either "Lovell" or "Rous- 
seau." When the first infant was presented, instead of 
blessing it in the usual patriarchal style, the general 
picked out one from among a number of silver half dol- 
lars he had and gave it to the child's mother. Several 
of the other infant Rousseaus received other half dollars, 
until the general began to suspect that the infants would 
be produced as long as the money lasted, and so he an- 
nounced a suspension of specie payment. The children, 
however, continued to make their appearance, until it 
became apparent that the name was never likely to die 
out among the mountaineers. Rousseau used to tell with 
great glee how two blind and deaf brothers presented 
themselves at his quarters, and said that they " had walk- 
ed five miles to see Rousseau and hear him talk." The 
demonstrations of the poor mountaineers of Chaplin 
Hills, as the region was called, greatly affected the gen- 
eral, and, as a singular mode of expressing his gratifica- 
tion, he always insisted on calling the battle of Perry- 
ville, which he fought next day in the vicinity of Max- 
ville, "the battle of Chaplin Hills." ■ 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 231 

Although Rousseau's military career was of the great- 
est credit to him, nothing of it reflects such honor on the 
soldier, or illustrates so nobly the character of the man, 
as did his conduct during the operations which I have 
sketched. Still, his military career won for him as great 
popularity with the army as his action in destroying neu- 
trality had done with the people. His principal achieve- 
ments were at Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River, the pur- 
suit and defeat of AVheeler in Tennessee, the defense of 
Fortress Rosecrans, and in the admirably conducted and 
highly successful raid into Alabama. At Shiloh his post 
was subordinate, and he will not occupy the foreground 
of the pictures which history will paint of that field, 
though he won recognition from Sherman, McClernand, 
and Grant for his gallantry. At Perryville the glory is 
all his own, while no story of Stone River can be truth- 
fully written that does not give him much of the credit 
for that very desperate " rough-and-tumble" fight, where, 
holding the reserve line, ho sent word to Rosecrans that, 
" though the right wing was gone," he " would not budge 
a step — not a d — d inch, sir." 

Without having the education, Rousseau had in him 
the military instinct which lights the fire and gives in- 
spiration to others, and his every battle displays him in 
this light. During the engagement at Perryville he dis- 
played great courage, and inspired his men with the 
same spirit. He laid no claim to tactical ability, and did 
not endeavor to manoeuvre his troops, but by his pres- 
ence with them kept them well together, and retained 
his organization during the whole day, although with- 
standing with a single division the repeated attacks of 



282 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Cheatliam's, Buckncr's, and Andersons divisions of 
Bragg's army, under the latter's personal direction. Per- 
haps like a reckless general, but certainly like a brave 
man, be was always with the front line, and as he rode 
among the men encouraging them, they hailed him with 
enthusiastic cheers. At one time during the battle, see- 
ing preparations making on the part of the rebels to re- 
peat an attack on Harris's brigade, by which they had 
just been repulsed, Eousseau dashed up to the command- 
ing officer of the Second Ohio, Major Anson McCook, 
who was on foot lighting his regiment, and was warning 
him of the approaching attack, when the men of the regi- 
ment, with shouts and hurrahs, gathered around him, 
hugging his legs and grasping his hands, throwing their 
caps in the air, and swearing to die with him. It was 
one of the most singular scenes ever witnessed on a bat- 
tle-field, and was subsequently alluded to by rebel offi- 
cers who had witnessed it, and who stated to our prison- 
ers taken during the day that they frequently saw and 
recognized Rousseau riding up and down the line during 
the battle. 

Rousseau was much predisposed, by reason of his men- 
tal organization, to excitability under fire, but it did not 
detract from his administrative power. lie was as clear- 
ly administrative iri danger as the more phlegmatic 
Thomas or Grant, but in a diffiu-ent way. Rousseau 
made very little, if any, use of his aids. If he had an 
order to give, he galloped across the field and gave it 
himself If he had an advance to order, it was done by 
leading the troops in person. During this battle of Per- 
rvvillo. General ^[cCook sent me to inform Rousseau, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 233 

who was on the extreme left of the line, lliat his right 
was being turned and was falhng back. Kousseau gal- 
loped to the endangered part of the line and rallied the 
troops in retreat, beating and cursing them into line, and 
actually breaking his sword over the head of one demor- 
alized individual, who was thus brought to a stand. The 
enemy, however, continued to advance, and Eousseau 
was compelled to look around for farther assistance. 
Seeing Captain Charles O. Loomis's battery in position, 
in reserve, commanding a little valley into which the en- 
emy had deployed, and through which they were rapid- 
ly advancing, he rode up to Captain Loomis and ordered 
him to open with canister, Loomis had not perceived 
the advancing enemy, and explained to Eousseau that he 
had been ordered into reserve by General McCook, and 
told to reserve his fire for close work. 

"Close work!" exclaimed Eousseau; "what the devil 
do you call that, Captain Loomis ?" 

He pointed down the valley, and Loomis saw in an 
instant the advancing foe and his own danger, Loomis 
was a minute-man — one of the quickest - witted and 
brightest-eyed men I ever met — and in a second his six 
guns were pouring a destructive cross-fire into the rebel 
ranks that at once played havoc with the enemy and 
encouraged our own forces. The enemy thus advancing 
had flanked Lytle's brigade, and it was now falling back 
toward Loomis's position, but Eousseau's personal direc- 
tion and appearance (Lytic had been left for dead on the 
field), and the opening guns of Loomis, soon reassured 
the men in retreat, and the line reformed. About the 
same time Sheridan's brigade was ordered in on the left 



234 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

by Greneral Bucll, and the enemy were speedily and 
bloodily repulsed. 

His conduct in this engagement gained Kousseau his 
promotion to a major generalcy. The commission read, 
"promoted for distinguished gallantry," and was the first 
of the numerous promotions for gallantry issued during 
the war for the Union. His great popularity with the 
troops may be said to have dated from this day ; and it 
grew still greater after the battle of Stone Eiver, where, 
though commanding the reserves, he was among the first 
engaged. The love of the men became so intense that it 
broke out on every occasion. On the march, in camp, 
on parade, their admiration grew demonstrative, and 
cheers greeted him wherever he went. During the win- 
ter of 1862-'6o, while the troops were in camp at Mur- 
freesborough, great numbers of rabbits were frequently 
frightened from their burrows, when an entire regiment 
would start in pursuit with noisy yells. The demonstra- 
tions of admiration for Eousseau and these noisy pursuits 
of the rabbits became so frequent that it was a common 
remark, whenever the cheering of the soldiers was heard, 
that they were either after "Eousseau or a rabbit." 

I have said that Eousseau was clearly administrative 
under all circumstances. He was once, and once only, 
known to betray any considerable nervousness under 
fire. It was during a brief engagement fought at Che- 
haw Station, when on his famous Alabama raid. He had 
sent forward Colonel Thomas Harrison, of the Eighth 
Indiana Cavalry (better known as the Thirty-ninth 
Mounted Infantry), to destroy a part of the railroad in 
his rear — the expedition then being on its return, having 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 235 

performed its principal purpose. Colonel Harrison un- 
expectedly became briskly engaged with the rebel forces 
under General James H. Clan ton. Kousseau was some 
distance in the rear of the fight, and the extent of the 
engagement was only known to him by the amount of 
the firing and the number of wounded men brought to 
the rear. One of his aids — Captain Elkin — observed 
Rousseau's nervousness gradually increasing, as evinced 
by his twirling his long black mustache, and icpeatiug 
aloud, but evidently communing with himself, 

"I shouldn't have got into this affair, I'm very much 
afraid this isn't judicious." 

Elkin penetrated through the swamps to Harrison's 
front, and returned with the information that the enemy 
were being driven, and that the result was not at all 
doubtful. 

"There's no reason," he said, "to be uneasy about 
Harrison, general." 

" Uneasy about Harrison !" exclaimed the general. 
"Tom Harrison can whip all the militia in Alabama. 
But what shall I do with my poor wounded boys? We 
are a thousand miles from home, and no way to carry 
them comfortably ?" 

He had to leave his wounded, and he took rather odd 
but effective means to have them well cared for. Hav- 
ing succeeded in capturing a company of Montgomery 
Cadets, the members of which were all young boys of 
less than seventeen years of age, he had them drawn up 
near his quarters, and released them unconditionally, 
with this suggestion : 

"Boys," he said, "go home and tell your parents that 



236 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Kousseau does not war ou women and children ; and, 
mark you! do you see that they don't make war on 
wounded prisoners." 

The Cadets were modest enough to be glad to be con- 
sidered and laughed at as boys on condition of their re- 
lease ; and on returning home showed their gratitude to 
Rousseau by taking as good care of his wounded as they 
were permitted to do. 

When Sherman sent Rousseau on this raid to the rear 
of Hood's army (it was Joe Johnston's when Rousseau 
started), he did not anticipate his early return, nor ex- 
pect him and his force to escape capture. When Rous- 
seau reported to him on his return from the raid, Sher- 
man was as much surprised as delighted. He made 
Rousseau detail the work of destruction which he had 
accomplished. After he had done so, Sherman said, 

" That's well done, Rousseau, well done ; but I didn't 
expect to see you back." 

"Why not?" asked Rousseau, somewhat surprised. 

" I expected you to tear up the road, but I thought they 
would gobble you." 

" You are a pretty fellow," said Rousseau, laughingl}^, 
" to send me off on such a trip." 

"You proposed it yourself," returned Sherman; "be- 
sides, I knew they wouldn't hurt yon, and I thought you 
would pay for yourself." 

On the occasion of the passage of Rolling Fork of Salt 
river there occurred an incident which is illustrative of 
the view wliich I have taken of the character of Rousseau 
as a natural-born leader. When giving the command to 
cross the river, which was then flood-high — it was a very 



DISTINGUISHED GENEKALS. 237 

cold morning besides — Eousseau rose in his Scaddle, and 
crying out to his men, " Follow me, boys ! I expect no 
soldier to undergo any hardship that I will not share !" 
he sprang from his horse, entered the ford, and waded to 
the other shore. His men followed with cheers and bra- 
vos, and the brigade followed, soon disappearing on the 
wood-lined road which leads to the summit of Mul- 
draugh's Hills. 

I have not space here to enter as I could wish into the 
details of Eousseau's military career. He must always 
remain a representative of one of the peculiar phases of 
the late war, and every event I could give will in the 
future be valuable ; but at this time it is impossible to 
allude farther to his military career. He left the army 
soon after the battle of Nashville (during which engage- 
ment he held the left position of Thomas's line at Fort- 
ress Rosecrans, near Murfrecsborough), and returned to 
Louisville at the request of his friends, to contest with 
Eobert Mallory, Esq., t-he latter's place in Congress. That 
congressional race was nothing more nor less than a cru- 
sade against the remnant of slavery left by the war in 
Kentucky, probably as a punishment for her attempted 
crime of neutrality. It was another brilliant triumpli 
won by the exercise of the same decisive action which 
has always characterized him. The Convention which 
nominated Rousseau was, in political parlance, merely a 
" pocket convention," and its nominee found, on leaving 
the military field to examine the political course, that he 
had really no party to back him. He had to build up a 
party, and without hesitation he decided that it should 
be an avowedly abolition party in principle and purpose. 



238 TEKSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

He began by announcing that he favored the adoption 
by the State of Kentucky of the constitutional amend- 
ment abolishing slavery, and denounced slavery as un- 
just, unwise, and impolitic — a curse and blight on the 
state. When he first made the speech in which he de- 
clared this, the people wildly stared at him, and when he 
had done they pronounced him insane. They were so 
completely blinded by their prejudices that they could or 
would not see the truth of his arguments, and at last he 
resorted to ridicule with better effect. 

" I wish to say again," he said, on one occasion, " that 
slavery, thank God, is dead. Its own friends have de- 
stroyed it. They placed it at the foundation of Jeff 
Davis's government, and invited, nay, forced us to assail 
it. They forced the whole liberal world to make war 
upon it, and presented to us the alternative to destroy 
slavery or see our government perish. Our duty was a 
plain one, to kill slavery and rebellion with it, and let 
the government live. Both of these things are accom- 
plished facts, and in the whole Christian world there re- 
main but three slave states — Cuba, Brazil, and Kentucl-yy 

This climax, so ridiculous to every Kentuckian with 
any state pride in his soul, was hailed wherever heard 
with shouts of laughter ; and Kousseau once remarked 
that it" was a curious fact that the laughter generally be- 
gan with the returned rebel soldiers, who possess less 
pro-slavery prejudices than the rebels who staid at home. 
Eousscau generally followed up this effective ridicule 
with what he called his "special argument against slav- 
ery." "We in Kentucky," he would say, "arc in the 
habit of arguing the slavery question more from the 
economical than the moral stand-point;" and he would 



DISTINGinSHED GENERALS. 239 

then go on to show how the institution had curtailed the 
prosperity of Kentucky and of the Soutli. " But," he 
would add, " I wish to add a little argument of my own. 
I want to tell you why slavery will not pay. It is be- 
cause we have a God in heaven, who has arranged the 
affairs of men in such a way that wrong and injustice 
won't pay, and don't pay. Has not the South lost more 
in the destruction of houses, and fences, and railroads, 
and crops, and other property, and expenditures for mu- 
nitions of war, etc., in the last four years of a rebellion, 
carried on for the benefit of slavery, than it wrung out 
of the sweat of the slave in the forty years preceding? 
Add to this the half a million of her brave sons who died 
or were crippled in battle and" in camp, half the entire 
arms-bearing population of the rebel states, and tell me 
if slavery was a paying institution to them ? And do 
you think it can be restored now and not lead to a blood- 
ier and fiercer war? And why is this? Simply because 
God in his wisdom has arranged the world so that in the 
long-run a system of wrong will not and can not pay." 

After four weeks active canvassing of the district 
Eousseau was returned to Congress by a heavy majority, 
although the opposition pro-slavery party employed a 
former United States officer to make the race in order to 
split the Union or amendment vote. The scheme failed. 
Eousseau's personal popularity, and his positive, determ- 
ined, and patriotic stand, carried him successfully through, 
and he was shortly after nominated for the Senate, which 
position he will doubtless attain. In these crusades against 
neutrality and slavery Eousseau has established a char- 
acter for firmness and persistence which have made him 
a most popular leader and the first man of his state; and 



240 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

he is already accepted as the true successor in princi- 
ples, purposes, and patriotism of the late great leader in 
Kentucky, Henry Clay. 

The very close intimacy existing between Sherman 
and Eousseau is a fine illustration of the rule that oppo- 
site natures are often kindred spirits. Two natures in 
greater contrast can hardly be conceived. Eousseau has 
none of Sherman's nervousness of thought or action, 
while Sherman has nothing of the excitability of Eous- 
seau under fire. Eousseau is personally a most conspic- 
uous — perhaps the most conspicuous officer in the United 
States army, while Sherman is among the most common- 
place in appearance. Yet their friendship, which began 
early in the war, is hardly the less remarkable than that 
existing between Grant and Sherman, and is much more 
demonstrative,. because Eousseau and Sherman are of af- 
fectionate and demonstrative "dispositions, while Grant is 
rather cold and formal. Sherman was very fond of quot- 
ing Eousseau's speech about him, delivered at the ban- 
quet to the latter at Louisville in 1862. Eousseau had 
then said of Sherman : 

" Of all the men I ever saw, he is the most untiring, 
vigilant, and patient. No man that ever lived could sur- 
prise him. His enemies say he was surprised at Shiloh. 
I tell you no. He was not surprised, nor whipped, for he 
fights by the week. Devoid of ambition, incapable of 
envy, he is brave, gallant, and just. At Shiloh his old le- 
gion met him just as the battle was ended, and at the sight 
of him, placing their hats upon their ba}- onets, gave him 
three cheers. It was a touching and fitting compliment 
to the gallant chieftain, I am thankful for this occasion 
to do justice to a brave, honest, and knightly gentleman." 



k 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 241 

When Sherman first read this speech, immediately 
after the battle, when he was still laboring under the in- 
sanity charge, he jumped from his seat, ran around his 
quarters from tent to tent, reading the speech to all his 
staff, and swearing that there was " one sensible man in 
the country who understood him." 

As may be rightly suspected from this article, Eous- 
seau is rather a hero of mine. He has many of the most 
admirable qualities of man ; and in long years of inter- 
course with him I saw a great deal to admire, and but 
little to condemn. I defy any man with an honest love 
of bold, albeit rugged honesty, to know the man and not 
to admire him. He was loyal, true, and affectionate to 
the back-bone. He stuck to his friends to the last, and 
only the firmer in adversity. The strong pressure of his 
mighty hand gave you no fear of what the clenched fist 
might do, but inspired confidence. He was, perhaps, too 
unsuspicious, and too hopeful and buoyant: these were 
the faults of his character, if faults it had, for knaves fre- 
quently imposed on him in the guise of honest poverty, 
and his hopeful nature sometimes led him to promise his 
friends more than he had the power, but not more than 
he had the disposition to perform. ' 

Eousseau is fully six feet two, perhaps three inches 
high, and otherwise Herculean in build and strength. 
When mounted — he always rides great, ponderous, and 
invariably blooded horses — he displays to great advan- 
tage, and no more graceful and impressive figure can be 
conceived than Rousseau mounted. He was born a gen- 
tleman, and his elegant manners are as natural as his 
bravery and high sense of honor are intuitive. 

L 



242 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 



CHAPTER YII. 

PECULIARITIES OF VARIOUS GENERALS. 

I WAS particularly fortunate during the war in coming 
in frequent contact with the four great characters who 
most deeply impressed themselves upon the public mind, 
and won the first positions in the history of the era. 
Sherman, Thomas, Grraut, and Sheridan were the ablest, 
and in the end the most successful of our leaders, and 
their fame is now a part of that of the country. Hooker 
and Rousseau were also representative soldiers, and will 
be quoted by posterity as examples, and regarded, not 
less than the others, as characters illustrative of the time 
and its events. Of the many other generals whom I met, 
and of whom I have many interesting and pleasing rem- 
iniscences to" relate, there are none so distinctly marked 
for lasting and permanent fame as the six whom I have 
sketched in detail. Still many of those of whom I now 
propose to speak will attain a place in future history and 
obtain a firm hold in the mind of posterity as characters 
worthy of emulation or remembrance, as have the others. 
Circumstances conspired to rob a few of those whom I 
knew of their just fame ; temporary greatness was thrust 
upon some totally unworthy of such distinction, while 
most of the others were mediocre, and could only have 
come to the surface of society in the general upheaval of 
a great revolution like that through which this country 




DON OAKLOa UUELL. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 245 

lately had the good fortune to pass to greater security 
and a grander future. Those I have sketched in detail 
were endowed with the unmistakable trait of greatness ; 
the majority of those whom I remember possessed pecul- 
iarities merely, and their reputations were local. 

Yet some few of them did not lack in ability, or the 
industry, energy, and courage which creates opportunity 
and wins renown. One of those whom circumstances 
robbed of his just renown, and who is now generally 
looked upon as one of the greatest failures of the war, 
was to my mind one of our ablest soldiers, and, as a tac- 
tician, was the equal of Grant or Thomas, or any of their 
subordinates. General Don Carlos Buell was a perfect 
soldier — perfect in manner, bearing, coohiess, courage, 
energy — physically and mentally a perfect soldier — but 
he failed. If he had a fault, it resulted from educa- 
tion, and from this fault came this failure. " A little 
learning is a dangerous thing," as Pope, Bulwer Lyt- 
ton, and every other person who has attempted to dis- 
pense knowledge second-handed has discovered to his 
sorrow ; but there is also such a thing as drinking too 
deep of the " Pierian Spring." To be a valedictorian 
is quite often to be an unfortunate ; and more signal fliil- 
"ures have emanated from the first section (Engineer) 
graduates of West Point, and the valedictorians of Yale 
and Hartford, than from less brilliant, less studious, but 
more practically educated classes of the same institutions. 
Not one of the valedictorians of West Point, from the 
time at which class-rank was first established — 1820, 1 
believe — rhas ever made a great success in practical life, 
and few of them have ever been famous outside of the 



246 PERSOXAL EECOLLECTIOXS OF 

arn-iv. Thov are learned and able undoubtedly, but tliey 
laek in practicability, and, when tliey come to wrestle 
with the world, find themselves ill adapted to the strug- 
gle. The Engineer Corps of the army into which the 
hiiiher irraduates of the Aeademv are placed has given us 
fewer successful soldiei-s than the Inlautry, which is con- 
sidered the lowest arm of the servica " All of the engineei"s 
have, as generals, been visibly affected in their adminis- 
tration, strategy, and tactics by their education, and have 
preferred to depend more upon mud walls than living 
phalanges, and their strategic marches have been more 
correct in mathematical calculations than successful in 
execution. Benham, Stevens, Franklin, 'W. II. C. Whit- 
ing, McPherson, McClellan, Lee, and dozens of others I 
could name, have in the late war proven this to be true ; 
and Quincy A. Gilmorc has proved about the only ex- 
ception to the rule, doubtless from the fact that after his 
graduation he left the Engineer Corps for the Artillery. 

Buell was not exactly a valedictorian, and was not in 
the Engineer Corps, but nevertheless he was one to whom 
all this I have said and exampled is applicable. lie was 
not made impracticable, but too methodical by his pu|Ml- 
age. Not too much learning, but too much routine ruin- 
ed him. He was not too much of a book-worm, but too 
much of a red tapist. His Alma Mater was not "West 
Point, but thi\t more pitiless school, the adjutant generars 
office. Thirteen year's' constant service in that departmen t 
of the army made him too systematic — smothered the tire 
in his heart, the impulsive in his nature, and. like Thom- 
as, he taught himself " not to feel." It ivudered him cool 
in danger, while not depriving him of his readiness in 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 247 

emergency, but it also unibrtiinatcly made bim so sys- 
tematic that it injured the originality of his conceptions. 
The adjutant general's office made bim too much of a reg- 
ular, so that when be came to command a great volun- 
teer force be looked for and strove in vain to attain the 
perfectness in appointment, organization, drill, and all 
that routine duty to which be bad been accustomed in 
the old arm3^ Cucll was a thoroughly educated soldier, 
as a strategist and tactician the equal of G rant ; but he 
was too much of an organizer, and this, with a volunteer 
army to command, really detracted from bis merit. Good 
organizei's of large armies seldom succeed in handling 
them to signal advantage. Buell was too good an organ- 
izer. This mere routine duty absorbed too much of bis 
mind ; bis mind became too much accustomed to dwell 
upon that specialty, and he gave it too much importance 
and consideration. So thoroughly bad Buell's mind be- 
come imbued with the importance of giving to volunteer 
armies the precise organization of the regulars, that in 
taking leave of the army which be bad formed from 
" Sherman's mob," he congratulated the soldiers who bad 
saved us Shiloh, first, as more important in bis c}' e than 
their victories, on their conversion " from raw levies into 
a powerful army, honored by common consent for its dis- 
cipline and efficient organization, and for its esprit de 

And yet this army thus congratulated was the weakest 
in organization of any great army that ever existed. It 
was not imperfect in its details ; on the contrar}'-, it was 
very admirable in that respect, but certainly no army was 
ever so weak in its corps commanders — McCook, Critten- 



248 FERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

den, and Grilbert. Circumstances took the organization 
out of Buell's band. On the arrival of the army at Louis- 
ville in pui"suit of Bragg, in September, 1S62, Genend 
Halleck, then commander-in-chief, concluded that Buell 
ought to be removed. Halleck was one of those men 
who, instead of arguing himself from an array of lacts 
into a correct position, would lii"st conclude that affairs 
were in the condition that he wished or feared, and would 
then argue himself into the belief that they undoubtedly 
were so. He would wish his enemy to occupy a certain 
position, and aetualh" bring himself to the belief that he 
had done so. Too good a lawyer ever to be a good sol- 
dier,- he depended for success on tricks in war as he had 
on quibbles in the law. He concluded, in 1S62, that 
Buell's army was demoralized through want of confi- 
dence in its commander, and decided upon his remov- 
al. The command was tendered to General George H. 
Thomas, who not only declined, but promptly urged the 
retention of General Buell. -The other corps command- 
er then joined in this request, and Buell was retained. 
He was forced to hastily organize his army in order to 
continue the pursuit of Bragg, and, consolidating ISTel- 
son s army, decided upon three corps, with Kelson, Mc- 
Cook, and Crittenden in command, while General Thomas 
acted as second under Buell. This last arrangement was 
very faulty. Thomas was the best man in the army, and 
this arrangement virtually deprived the army of his serv- 
ices, and made him merely an inspector general. Before 
the campaign had opened, Kelson, who was a very supe- 
rior soldier, was assassinated, and his place was supplied 
— it is reallv ridiculous to sav so, however — ^bv Geneml 



I 



DISTINGUISHED GENEIL\LS. 2-i9 

C. C. Gilbert. Never did a single armj possess tliree 
siieh weak corps commanders as Alexander McDowell 
McCook, C. C. Gilbert, and Thomas L. Crittenden. Tbej 
were doubtless brave and gallant — every soldier is sup- 
posed to be that ; they doubtless did their dut}- to their 
full ability — every soldier does that, and expects no par- 
ticular commendation for it; but these men were not 
capacitated by nature or education for the positions they 
held. Not one of them had any iron in his nature — 
neither were deep reasoners or positive characters. They 
were of that class of men who " intended to do well," 
but who, without any fixed and unswerving principle to 
guide them, vacillated and procrastinated until the great 
motive and the propitious time for action had passed, 
and left them the doers only of positive evil or negative 
good, which is just as bad. ;^^cCook was an overgrown 
school-boy, without dignit}'' (Sherman, once alluding to 
him, called him " a juvenile") : Crittenden was a country 
lawyer with little legal and no military ability, and Gil- 
bert a martinet, without an idea of discipline or system — 
the worst kind of a martinet. It would have been a niir- 
acle had Buell succeeded. His campaign was a failure 
when the circumstances of Nelson's death and llalleck's 
interference made Thomas the " fifth wheel to the coach," 
and McCook, Crittenden, and Gilbert the immediate di- 
rectors of the corps forming the x\rmy of the Ohio. 

Buell was removed for the failure at Perryville, and 
actually court-martialed for that crime of McCook and 
Gilbert. The fiict is that it was fought against Buell's 
express orders ; and McCook, the corps commander di- 
recting it, boasted during the battle to Captain James S. 

L 2 



250 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Stokes (formerly of tlie regular army, but at that time 
in command of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery) 
that he had General Buell's orders not to fight in his 
pocket, and added that if General Buell supposed that 
"Aleck McCook was coming in sight of the enemy with- 
out fighting him, he was much mistaken in his man." 
The fact is that Perryville was an unnecessary battle, 
and was fought only through the jealousy existing be- 
tween our commanders. The great blessing of the late 
civil war in this country — I am not going to stop now to 
say how it was a great blessing, taking, as it eventually 
did, the form of a crusade against ignorance and slav- 
ery — a crusade for knowledge and libertj^^, in which all 
Christendom of this enlightened age should have joined 
with the same fervor that in a darker age it did in the 
crusade against the Crescent for the Tomb — this great 
blessing brought with it certain evils, and the basest of 
these was jealousy. This most degrading passion exist- 
ed in our armies to a most surprising degree — to such an 
extent, indeed, that noble actions, instead of being held 
up as examples worthy of emulation, were often — in 
nine cases out of every ten — in which the actor survived, 
made the means of bringing him into ridicule among 
his immediate associates. Great men were injured in 
their prospects — brave men have been debarred from 
their just reward of promotion — ay, and even great cam- 
paigns retarded and ruined by the jealous interference 
of the envious and malicious. Important junctions of ar- 
mies were prevented, needed re-enforcements held back, 
and many a brave man sacrificed by the jealousy and 
envy of commanders who would be great, but who could 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 251 

not suffer to see others great. Jealousy did more actual 
damage to the cause during the war than did incompe- 
tency, and I don't think I can put the fact any more for- 
cibly than by saying that. 

Perryville was a battle growing out of jealousy, and 
lost through jealousy. The first movement made by our 
troops, and the one that induced the attack of the rebels, 
who would have been glad to lie still and avoid a con- 
flict which could only interfere with their retreat, was 
the result of General James S. Jackson's jealousy of Gen- 
eral Eousseau, into whose line of battle circumstances 
had placed one of the former's brigades. Jackson went 
to McCook and begged to be placed in position in another 
part of the field, where he could fight his command un- 
trammeled. To gratify this desire, McCook moved him 
nearly a mile to the front, and, as it happened, directly 
upon the enemy, who attacked and surprised him. Jack- 
son was killed, and the brigade routed. Despite the re- 
verse, McCook was confident he could win the fight and 
the glory unaided, and so jealous was he of Gilbert that 
he would not ask for assistance, although Gilbert lay 
with his whole corps within a stone's throw, looking 
with interest on the desperate fight of Eousseau's divi- 
sion, which was all that was left of McCook's corps after 
Jackson had been routed. And Gilbert was such a mar- 
tinet that he would not tender aid unasked, and so jeal- 
ous of McCook that he looked upon his probable defeat 
with positive pleasure. And although Generals Steed- 
man and Sheridan begged permission to go to Eousseau's 
aid, Gilbert declined to give them permission, because 
General McCook had not, and would not ask for assist- 



252 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

auce. Alas! for the vnnity of human calcuhxtioiis ! 
While McCook and Gilbert thus indulged in criminal 
jealousy of each other, Eousseau, a subordinate of both, 
but a greater than cither, stepped in and carried off the 
laurels by saving that portion of the army which their 
jealousy had endangered. For this ftiilure of McCook's 
Buell was removed, and Eosecrans given the command. 
The latter improved the faulty organization (^nl}^ by re- 
turning Thomas to the immediate command oi^ his corps. 
It was a fortunate thing that he did so, for this corps, 
under Thomas's immediate direction, at Stone Eiver and 
Chickamauga, twice saved Eosecrans s army from total 
annihilation. 

Uad the military genius of Buell been developed in 
ISOo instead of 1861, that officer wonld have won a 
splendid reputation with the }niblie, and a imc position 
in the army. In ISlU the people were clamorous for 
successes, even if bloody; in 1803 they were rapidlj'- 
growing wiser, and demanded positive advantages for 
every drop of blood. Buell was one of the early devel- 
opments sacriticed to the nation's ignorance of war. Ilis 
policy would have been admired in 1864, but it ruined 
him in 1862. Then his policy was misrepresented, his 
character maligned, and even his loyalty impeached, and 
he was placed on trial before a court, one member of 
which. General Scheopff, was openly convicted of having 
declared that he " believed General Buell to be a traitor." 
There were other membei's of the same court who held 
similar opinions, but in the end the court failed to crim- 
inate Buell fully. He was acquitted, and ordered to 
duty. General Buell believed that Andrew Johnson, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 253 

then Governor of Tennessee, and now President of the 
United States, was the principal instigator of this perse- 
cution of him, and always entertained toward that officer 
a very bitter and hostile feeling. Governor Johnson be- 
lieved that Buell's usefulness in Tennessee had departed, 
was much opposed to his returning to command in that 
department, and when its command was again tendered 
Buell, he telegraphed to Washington to protest against 
the appointment. Before Buell could accept or decline 
the command, he received a notice that the order was 
changed, and that he would assume command of the De- 
partment of the Gulf, relieving General Banks. General 
Buell shortly after dechned, also, to accept the latter ap- 
pointment, no explanation being given. I was much in- 
terested in the study of Buell's character at the time, and 
wrote him asking his reasons. Ilis reply to me touched 
upon several other points of his administration which I 
had inquired about in a previous letter, and there was 
but a single paragraph exphaining his reasons for resign- 
ing. He stated that on receiving notice that he had been 
transferred from the Tennessee to the Gulf Department, 
he had made unofficial inquiries at Washington, and had 
discovered that the change had been ordered by Presi- 
dent Lincoln immediately on receipt of the protest of 
Governor Johnson. On learning this, Buell resigned. 
Shortly after this he published a letter, giving as his 
grounds for resigning that the officers to whom he had 
been ordered to report (Sherman and Canby) were his 
juniors. I can not but have wished that he had put his 
motive for resigning on the higher grounds U})ou wliicli 
he really acted, however unfounded may have been his 



254 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

prejudice against Governor Johnson ; for, though it is 
doubtful if the latter acted from personal prejudices, cer- 
tainly General Buell would have been justified in declin- 
ing to serve a government which removed, transferred, 
and court-martialed him on the representation of a single 
person. 

Numerous were the misrepresentations made of the 
supposed quarrel between Buell and Johnson, much to 
the damage of the former and disgust of the latter. 
Among the other stories told were two to the effect that 
Governor Johnson had forced General Buell to fortify 
Nashville, and secondly to garrison instead of evacua- 
ting the city. During the summer of 1862, Governor 
Johnson became convinced that it would have a good 
effect upon the rebel citizens of Nashville to fortify it, as 
evidence of the intention of the army to hold the place. 
In the absence of General Buell, the governor called 
upon Major Sidell, who was Buell's adjutant general 
stationed at Nashville, and, opening the subject, got ex- 
cited in its elaboration, and delivered a stump speech of 
half an hour's duration. When he had retired, Sidell 
came to the conclusion that the governor had intended 
what he had said for General Buell's ear, and immediate- 
ly wrote out a synopsis of the speech in a letter to the 
general, and forwarded it to him. The answer came 
back, " Consult with Governor Johnson, and commence 
the works." Major Sidell called upon the governor, and 
the two rode around the city, and at last decided upon 
the erection of a stockade fort on what was known as St. 
Cloud Hill. This was the commencement of that series 
of works which now so formidably environ Nashville, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 255 

and which formed such an impregnable barrier to Efood's 
advance in 186-i. The story of the evacuation, as popu- 
larly received, is a very gross exaggeration of Governor 
Johnson's would-be, but mistaken friends. When the 
army was moving through Nashville in September, 1862, 
in pursuit of Bragg, it certainly looked very much like 
an evacuation was about to take place, and many of the 
Union citizens became nervous over the prospect. Gov- 
ernor Johnson, accompanied by a single aid, waited upon 
General Buell, and found him in his quarters poring 
over a map. Governor Johnson at once opened his budg- 
et — remarked that the movement of the troops had 
created the fear on the part of the people that the inten- 
tion was to abandon N/ishville to the enemy, and if such 
was the purpose, the Union citizens should be informed, 
in order that they might be enabled to leave with the 
army. He therefore requested of General Buell to know 
his intention in that respect. General Buell laid aside 
his maps, and with that dignity and deliberation which 
characterized his every word and action, replied, 

" Governor, according to all the rules of military art, 
I ought to evacuate this city, for its possession depends 
upon the result of the battle which is to be fought with 
Bragg in Kentucky, whither he is now advancing, and 
where I am pursuing him. To hold this city deprives 
me not only of a large force available in a battle, but 
also places me at the disadvantage of having to watch 
two important points, Louisville and Nashville, at once. 
If Bragg is attacked and defeated (and the force neces- 
sary to garrison this city can materially contribute to that 
result), I can reoccupy Nashville at any moment. If 



256 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Bragg nttacks and defeats me, the foree left here will 
be endangered, I shall be }io\verless to aid it, and it w\\\ 
eventually be saeriliced Avitli the city. But the moral 
effect of holding Nashville will be very great upon my 
army and upon the people of the North, though it may 
prevent my attacking Bragg; and for that reason I have 
determined to hold it, and shall leave General Thomas in 
command, with his corps for its garrison," 

To this speech Governor Johnson replied, expressing 
his gratilication, and immediately retired. General Thom- 
as w^as left in command, but on reaching Gallatin, and 
finding Bragg was still in advance of him, moving north 
upon Louisville, General Buell sent orders to General 
Thomas to leave General James S. Negley in command 
of the garrison, and to join him with the rest of his corps. 
It was to this movement that Governor Johnson object- 
ed, and on his representation General Thomas so far dis- 
obeyed BuelFs orders as to leave General John ]\r. Pal- 
mer and his division, as well as that of General Negley, 
to hold Nashville. 

The speech of General Buell to Governor Johnson em- 
braced his whole plan of the campaign, and he followed 
it out faithfully and successfullv. lie followed Brac'o- 
closely, but refused to fight him, covered Nashville and 
protected Louisville, and eventually forced Bragg to re- 
treat from the state by way of the mountains of East 
Tennessee, llad he urged battle and been defeated, or 
even disabled. General Negley would have been forced 
to retreat, harassed at every step, to the Ohio Eiver, at 
Paducah. As it was, Bragg accomplished nothing, and 
had Buell remained in command he would never have 



DISTINGUISHED GENEKALS. 257 

again advanced north of Chattanooga. BucU having 
driven Bragg from Kentucky, proposed to go by forced 
marches to Murfreesborough, Tennessee, drive Breckin- 
ridge from that point, and reoccupy the rich country of 
Middle Tennessee. But he was very unwisely super- 
seded by Eosecrans, who delayed until Bragg had moved 
north to Murfreesborough, and had actually advanced to 
take Nashville. This delay necessitated the lighting of 
the battle of Stone River, and cost us ten thousand men. 

In manners and habits, as well as in modesty and 
sternness. General Buell is not unlike Thomas, possess- 
ing the same dignity of deportment, and reservedness 
and imperturbability so characteristic of the latter officer, 
lie possessed, too, the same regular habits of business, and 
is a model of reticence and secrecy. lie is, if any thing, 
too cold in demonstration, and won in consequence, while 
in the army, a reputation for gruffness which he did not 
deserve. lie smiled as seldom as Thomas. One morn- 
ing, during a recess of the court which was examining 
into his conduct at Nashville in December, 1862, he grew 
unusually lively in a playful controversy with a young 
daughter of General Rousseau, and perpetrated several 
rather comical jokes. Miss Rousseau, utterly astonished 
at this unexpected liveliness on the general's })art, ex- 
pressed her surprise by exclaiming, "Why, General Bucll, 
I never knew you to laugh aloud before." 

"Ah! my child," replied the general, suddenly grow- 
ing serious, "you never knew me when I felt free to 
laugh as now." 

Although very small of stature, General Buell pos- 
sesses almost Herculean strength, and frequently has 



/ 



258 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

been known to lift his wife, a ladj of at least 140 pounds' 
weight, at arm's length, and stand her on a mantle-shelf 
nearly as high as himself. His fi-ame, compactly built, 
is all muscle and sinew. 

When Buell was relieved by Eosecrans, the army 
threw up its hat in delight, and the country re-echoed 
their bravos of approval. Never was joy so inappropri- 
ate — never was there a change of commanders so inju- 
dicious, and it required only a year of time, but, alas! 
many a human life, to prove how criminal it was. Poli- 
tics nor war ever thrust upon the nation a more incom- 
petent leader than William Starke Eosecrans. He had 
not one of the attributes of generalship. He was neither 
a strategist nor a tactician, and all he knew of the art of 
war were its tricks — the tricks that every Indian and all 
Tincivilizcd nations most excel in. He inspired dread in 
his enemies only by his reputation for tricker}^, and was 
known throughout the camps of the foe as " that wily 
Dutchman, Eosecrans." He was eminently fitted by na- 
ture and education to be the provost-marshal and chief 
of spies to a great army like that which he commanded, 
but nothing more. 

Nature unfitted him for the task of directing a great 
army by making him extremely nervous. His nervous- 
ness, unlike that of Sherman, was a weakness. His ex- 
citability rendered it not only impossible for him to exe- 
cute, but it made him incoherent, and he could not direct 
others. I have known him, when merely directing an 
orderly to carry a dispatch from one point to another, 
grow so excited, vehement, and incoherent as to utterly 
confound the messenger. In great danger as in small 




U ll,I,IA.\I H. iiljHi;<:KAiN«. 



i 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 261 

things, this nervousness incapacitated him from the in- 
telligible direction of his officers or effective execution 
of his plans. He possessed no control over himself, and 
consequently was not capable of directing others. 

Eosecrans was not an impressive man. It was too ap- 
parent that all he did was for " effect," in the theatrical 
sense. He possessed very little dignity, and he dwindled 
terribl}'' as you came to know him most intimately. He 
did not " wear well" even with the troops, who are the 
last of an army to give up their worship of a general. 
He was not long admired by his subordinate officers, 
and, though a great favorite with his soldiers, they never 
lavished upon him that intense devotion which they felt 
for Thomas, and which seldom found utterance in noisy 
demonstration. Eosecrans had a system by which to 
gain the affections of his men totally different from that 
of Thomas or Grant. It was, however, the false system 
of the demagogue. He never passed a regiment without 
having a pleasant word for the men. He chatted freely 
and even jocularly with them. He blamed the officers 
for every thing — the men for nothing. If a knapsack 
was put on carelessly, he told the guilty main's captain 
that he "didn't know how to strap on a knapsack." If 
a canteen was missing, he ridiculed the soldier who 
thought he could fight without water, and scolded his 
officer. All this pleased the men, without exactly offend- 
ing the officer, and the whole army had a hearty laugh 
over every such scene, and felt an increased admiration 
for the general. But this admiration died out on the 
first apparent failure of the idol, and transferred itself to 
the successor, who had won their confidence by saving 



2(^2 TEESONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

their roriner idol and themselves. Short I3' after the re- 
tirement from Chickamauca to Chattanooga, and while 
the whole of his army was engaged in building the de- 
fenses of that plaee, Eosecrans, aecompanied by Thomas, 
rode aronnd the line to examine the works. It happen- 
ed that this was also General Thomas's firet public ap- 
pearanee after the battle of Chiekamanga, and whenever 
the two made their appearance, the troops threw down 
their spades and picks, gathered in tumultuous and noisy 
crowds around the person of Thomas, grasped and kissed 
his hands and embraced his leg^s, to the total neglect of 
Eosecrans, and much to the latter's disgust and Thomas's 
confusion. The distinction was too marked to remain 
unnoticed, and Eosecrans saw in that demonstration his 
approaching downfall. 

The iinmediate cause of Eosecrans's removal was his 
failure at Chiekamanga. There were other ollvnscs laid 
to his charge, but this Wiis enough to condemn him ; and 
he would have been relieved immediately after that 
event had it not been necessary, in Mr. Lincoln's opinion, 
to retain him in the position until after the Ohio election 
for govcrnof^ So little were the people understood, and 
so little was their deep earnestness appreciated, that there 
were wise counselors of the President who believed that 
the removal of Eosecrans at that time would strengthen 
Yallandigham, and perhaps secure his election over 
Brough. As soon as the election was over, however, 
Eosecrans was removed, and very properly too, for his 
entire campaign had been one series of great mistakes, 
which civciunstances have served to hide from general 
observation. T am in some measure responsible for the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 263 

false impressions prevailing about that campaign, for I 
was so placed — as correspondent for a leading paper of 
the country — that I could have given them publication, 
but the sin was one of omission only. A little circum- 
stance prevented me at the time from telling the whole 
truth about the battle of Chickamauga, or even all I had 
proposed to tell. As it was, I was condemned, abused, 
and ridiculed b}'" half the papers in the country for what 
little I did say, and for a few weeks I felt myself the 
best abused man in the country. It was not until Rose- 
crans, and McCook, and Crittenden were relieved that 
people began to understand that I was right, and I to feel 
that I had made a mistake in not giving the whole story 
in fall. The circumstance M'hich induced mc to do other- 
wise was this : A week or two before the battle of Chick- 
amauga, the Assistant Secretary of War, Charles A. Dana, 
arrived at Rosecrans's head-quarters, and he was receiv- 
ed by the arm}'- as if he was a bird of evil omen. It was 
whispered at head-quarters that he had come as the spy 
of the War Department, and to find justification for Rose- 
crans's intended removal ; the rumor spread to the camp ; 
officers looked upon him with scowls, and the men ridi- 
culed him by pretending to mistake him for a sutler, and 
by calling after him as he would ride by in the wake of 
Rosecrans, " ITcy, old sutler! when are you going to 
open out?" ]\[r. Dana's position must have been very 
unpleasant to him, for he was evidently an object of sus- 
picion in every body's eyes, and his mission "to ruin 
Rosecrans" was the talk of the whole camp. On the 
morning after the battle, when about leaving Chattanooga 
for New York, in order to write up an account of the 



2(U rEESOXAL EECOLLECTIOXS OF 

battle for the Herald, I waited on General Eoseerans to 
obtain Lis approval to a dispateli to be for\Yarded by 
telegraph. The general, Gartield, Dana, and one or t^YO 
aids, were at luueh. While General Gartield read and 
approved the dispatch, General Eoseerans asked nie, 
among other questions, what I proposed to tell about the 
late battle. I answered, " The plain, unvarnished truth, 
I hope." Soon after I left, and Mr. Dana arose and fol- 
lowed me to the telegraph office. Here he very officious- 
ly told the telegraph operatoi-s to see that my dispatch 
went through without delay, and otherwise showed al- 
most too plainly a disposition to serve me. Before I 
could leave the house and mount my horse to ride to the 
nearest railroad station, I heard two operators talking of 
collusion between myself and Mr. Dana, while a third 
told me very plainly "that it was evident that Mr. Dana 
and myself were both disposed to blame Eoseerans for 
the defeat" To have written what I had intended would 
have been to justity this suspicion, and hence much that 
I would likeii to have said of the battle at that time in 
the Herald I was compelled to defer until the present 
time and the present book. 

In the fii"st place, I would have liked to have said then 
that the battle of Chickamauga was useless ; that there 
was not the slightest necessity for lighting it, and, despite 
all that has been said, and written, and misrepresented to 
the contrary, to have shown that the troops could have 
been easily concentrated in Chattanooga without lighting 
a battle of any dimensions. The campaign was well man- 
aged until the occupation of Chattanooga, and the crossing 
of T,ookont ^Mountain excited Eoseerans so that he lost 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 265 

his self-possession, when lie made the gross mistake of 
sending his three corps in pursuit, by widely divergent 
lines, of a foe concentrated immediately in front of his 
centre. General Thomas made the discover}^ of this po- 
sition of the enemy, and without consulting Eosecrans, 
who was some distance awa}'-, ordered McCook, already 
fifty miles distant on his way to Borne, to return imme- 
diately. For this Eosecrans blamed Thomas at first, but 
allowed himself to be argued into confirming the orders, 
which order really saved McCook, for another twenty- 
four hours' delay would have prevented him from reach- 
ing the main army. Nevertheless, having retreated west 
of Lookout Mountain, McCook was safe and could have 
pursued his wa}^ to Chattanooga, whither Thomas, and 
Crittenden too, could have fallen back had they not wait- 
ed for McCook to recross the mountain and concen- 
trate upon the west bank of the Chiekamauga. Forty- 
eight valuable hours were lost by this movement, and 
made the battle of Chiekamauga not only a necessity, but 
a fliilurc. Had the proper plan been pursued, the cam- 
paign of Eosecrans would have ended with the successful 
siege and battles of Chattanooga, without their terrible 
precursor, Chiekamauga. 

The engagement itself was the worst managed battle 
of the war. The public blamed Eosecrans, and the Pres- 
ident relieved him for leaving the field and retiring to 
Chattanooga, but it is not generally known that Eose- 
crans never saw the battle-field of Chiekamauga; yet 
such is the fjict ; and he has to this day no knowledge of 
the roads or configuration of that field from personal ex- 
amination. Tie did not actually see a gun fired on that 

M 



266 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

iield except ^Ybell Longstreet broke McCook's corps and 
pushed tlirougli Eosecrans's quarters, which were in the 
rear of that part of the field. On the first day his quar- 
ters were a mile to the right and rear of the line of battle, 
and two miles from the main fight, which Thomas con- 
ducted. During this day's battle Eosecraus paced up 
and down his quarters, while his engineer sat near by 
with a map, a pencil, and a compass, endeavoring to lo- 
cate on the map the line of the battle by its sounds ! 
Never was an}' thing so ridiculous as this scene. A coun- 
trywoman named Glenn, who resided at the house, was 
called into requisition as an aide, and, standing b}^ the en- 
gineer's side, would, in reply to his questions, " guess" the 
locality of the firing as "about a mile fornenst John Kel- 
ly's bouse," or " nigh out about Eeid's bridge somewhar.'' 
The firing could bo distinctly heard, and as on one or two 
occasions the cannonading and musketry grew more rapid, 
I heard Eosecraus, rubbing his hands and lairly quiver- 
ing with excitement, exclaim, "Ah ! there goes Brannin !" 
or " That's Negley going in !" and really understanding 
no more about the actual situation than the poor woman 
who aided Garfield and St. Clair I\[orton to locate the 
line on the map. Meantime, on the field, each corps 
commander fought " on his own hook," and thus Crit- 
tenden, who never, on the battle-field, had an opinion of 
his own, or ever assumed any responsibility that he could 
possibly avoid, failed to advance his corps when that of 
Thomas charged and drove the enemy. ^ ITad he done 
so, all the force wliieh Bragg, on that first day of the en- 
gagement, had on our side of the Chickamauga Eiver. 
must have inovitablv been driven into that stream. As 



DISTINGUISHET) GENERALS. 267 

it was, the riglit flank of Thomas's advancing corps be- 
came exposed and turned, and he was forced to retire 
from the field he had won, the fruits of his victory fritter- 
ed away by Crittenden's negativeness. All this was un- 
doubtedly owing to Kosecrans's absence from the field. 
The whole story of this terrible mistake was told that 
night by General John M. Palmer in an incident which 
illustrated it very handsomely. I had met him during 
the day when his troops were somewhat scattered. Dur- 
ing the night ensuing, I was sitting at the table of the 
telegraph operators at Rosecrans's quarters, writing a dis- 
patch, when General Palmer came in. 

" Since I saw you this morning," he said, addressing 
me, "I have got my troops together again. They are in 
good spirits, and ready for another fight. I have no hes- 
itation in saying to you" — at this moment he saw Assist- 
ant Secretary of War Dana at the other end of the table, 
and would have liked to stop, but had gone too far, and 
so he added, "and I have no hesitation in saying to you, 
Mr. Dana, that this battle has been lost because we had 
no supreme head to the army on the field to direct it." 

Nothing was ever truer than this. All that was at 
one time needed to have secured us a great victory was 
to have had some one to tell Crittenden that it was his 
manifest duty to charge with Thomas. The next day 
was too late; Longstreet was then across the river; 
McCook was routed ; he, Crittenden, and Posccrans 
were in Chattanooga (the latter had already telegraphed 
to Washington that his army was totally defeated and 
routed); and all that Thomas could hope to do with liis 
remnant of the army was to cover the retreat. Tin's lie 



268 PERSOXAL RECOLLECTIOXS OF 

was enabled to do by the timely appearance of the re- 
serve corps and its two very able leaders, Granger and 
Steed man. 

Granger was the cliaracter, Steedman the remarkable 
man of these two, and both such men as Thomas needed 
in his emergency. They brought with them the reserve 
corps of twenty -five thousand men — fifteen thousand of 
them enlisted men, the other ten thousand were Steed- 
man and Granger themselves. The}^ were each men in 
whom their troops had implicit confidence, and this 
doubled their strength, or rather was their strength, for 
no army can be said to have any strength if it has not 
confidence in its leaders. 

Gordon Granger is a rude, rough, and tough soldier, 
and the confidence of his men was inspired not so much 
by their knowledge of his abilit}^ as of admiration of 
his bravery. His ability as a director is not great, but 
he is a good leader of men. Granger is a man with- 
out any sense of fear — is more thoroughly inditYerent 
to the dangers of battle than any man I ever remem- 
ber to have met. He was not the coolest man I have 
seen on a battle-field ; on the contrary, he was what 
might be called fidget}'-, in order to avoid saying that he 
was excitable, which would not be true ; but so totally 
and absohitely fearless that it was not merely apparent, 
but remarkable, and called forth frequent allusion from 
his fellow-officers, and the constaitt admiration of his 
men. This quality of his nature constituted him a lead- 
er, as inspiring the confidence of his men, and this confi- 
dence formed the discipline and the morale of his com- 
mand. Granger ouo-ht to have been an artillerist rather 




OOHDON ORANUKR. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 271 

than an infantry-man, for he was devoted to the artil- 
lery, and the greatest fault of his character as a leader 
was this predilection for artillery. Not unfroquently 
Granger would abandon the direction of a corps to com- 
mand a battery. At Chickamauga he left Steedman to 
lead his corps while he mounted a battery on General 
"Woods's front, and opened on the enemy a fire which 
had the effect of calling forth a reply which made 
Thomas's quarters too hot to be comfortable even for 
that old salamander. During the first day of the battles 
of Chattanooga, in November, 1863, Granger devoted 
himself in the same way to the big guns in Fort Wood, 
Grant's head-quarters, and so disturbed Grant by his re- 
peated firing of the monsters that the latter had to order 
him to the front, where his troops had carried a position. 
The ruling passion was too strong in Granger to be ex- 
orcised by a hint, and he had hardly been on the front 
line five minutes when he had a battery mounted, and 
was firing away at the rebels at a shorter range. 

Granger was a man equally courageous morally as 
physically, and pursued an object, or criticised a subject 
or person without the slightest regard to others' opinions. 
lie never shirked a responsibility — in fact, would rather 
act without authority than not, as giving zest to the un- 
dertaking. He was free in his criticisms as Ilooker, but 
ruder. He had as little policy in such things as " Fight- 
ing Joe," but nothing of the sarcastic bitterness of that 
officer. Granger was almost gruff, not onl}^ in his criti- 
cisms, but in his language, and never disliked a man 
without showing it. When the army occupied East Ten- 
nessee, after the expulsion of Longstreet from the vicin- 



272 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

ity of Knoxville, Sherman left Granger in command at 
Loudon with but little food for his troops, and almost no 
provender for his animals. Granger complained of his 
wants to Grant, who referred the matter to Sherman. 
The latter declared that there was plenty of all kinds of 
supplies in East Tennessee, and in indorsing the papers, 
advised Granger to live off the country. " Living off the 
country" was a favorite idea with Sherman, but Granger 
saw greater difficulty in it, and nearly starved in trying 
to do so. Shortly after this Grant went to the Potomac, 
and Sherman succeeded him in command of the Military 
Division of the Mississippi. While making an inspec- 
tion of his command in the ensuing spring, Sherman one 
day arrived at Loudon, Granger's head-quarters. On 
jumping off the cars at that place, Sherman saw Granger 
in front of his quarters, and, going up to him, began, in 
that quick, nervous manner in which Sherman always 
speaks, 

"I say. Granger, I wish you would give me and my 
staff something to eat — only a mouthful — only a mouth- 
ful, and a cup of coffee. Haven't had any thing to eat 
since daylight." 

" See you starved first," muttered Granger sotto voce, 
but still loud enough to be heard. "Why don't you 
' live off the country ?' " 

He did, however, give Sherman his rations — of the 
plainest materials he could gather — "Lincoln platform" 
(hard bread) and rye coffee, but could not avoid the 
temptation to repeatedly apologize for the plain fare by 
the remark, 

" You see, general, we have to ' live off the country,' " 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 273 

Although a great admirer of Eosecrans, Granger was 
not more particular in his language to him than to 
Sherman. After Thomas had fallen back to Rossville, 
after the battle of Chickamauga, he sent General Granger 
to Chattanooga to represent the situation to Rosecrans, 
and obtain his order to retire upon Chattanooga. Gran- 
ger found Rosecrans, and had very little difficulty in ar- 
guing him into adopting Thomas's ideas. He sat down 
at a table, and, with Granger looking over his shoulder, 
began to write the order to Thomas to fall back. In- 
stead of making it a brief command, Rosecrans went on 
to detail how the retreat must be conducted, how the 
troops should be marshaled, this division here and an- 
other there, who should be in the van and who in the rear, 
and was adding that great fires must be built all along 
the line before the retreat began, in order to deceive the 
enemy into the belief that they were going to stay there 
(a favorite trick of the wily Rosecrans), when Granger in- 
terrupted him — 

"Oh, that's all nonsense, general! Send Thomas an 
order to retire. -He knows what he's about as well as 
you do." 

Rosecrans silently obeyed, tore up the order, and wrote 
another, which proved a model of brevity, and fully as 
satisfactory to Thomas. 

This independence in speech rather interfered with 
Granger's character for gallantry — sadly so on one occa- 
sion, in the estimation of a charming Miss Saunders, of 
Nashville, step-daughter of Governor Aaron Y. Brown, 
and a niece of the rebel General Gideon Pillow. Miss 
Saunders was particularly proud of her uncle Gideon, 

M2 



274 PEliSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

and Dcvcr lost an opportunity of sounding liis praise. 
On one occasion sLc was indulging in tliis praise of Pil- 
low to Granger, and among other things remarked that 
her uncle " would have held a very high rank in the 
Confederate army had it not been for the personal en- 
mity existing between him and Jeif Davis, Very unex- 
pectedly, the ungullant and over-candid Granger rc})licd, 

"General Pillow never amounted to much." 

''JMie brow of the charming young lady contracted, and 
her eyes flashed fire as she excla'imcd, 

"General Granger, how dare you speak so of my 
uncle?" 

"Oh," answered Granger, "you can't fool me with 
'painted mules.'" (Granger had been a quarter-master, 
and in his early days had frequently been imposed upon 
by traders in repaired condemned animals.) "I knew 
Gid Pillow in Mexico, and he always was an old fool." 

The (lisgnst of the niece can be better imagined than 
desci-ibed, and the ungallant and rough Gi'anger was foi'- 
cver after banished from her presence. 

Like most similarly candid men, Granger was a firm, 
warm, and constant friend. I had quite a quarrel with 
him during the battle of Mission Kidge for having al- 
luded to a story told me by Senator Nesmith, of Oregon, 
of his comical adventures in escaping from capture at 
Chickamauga, and his retreat to civilization. I could 
not for some time understand Granger's wrutli, until he 
told me that Senator Nesmith was a particuhir and inti- 
mate friend of his, and he should not be abused in his 
presence. It was not until I had ex})lained that Nesmith 
had himsc^lf told me the story, and that it was highly 



I 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 275 

creditable to his nerve and courage, though comical in 
the extreme, th;it Granger at last became mollified. 

General Granger was fond of the young men associated 
with him at head-quarters as members of his staff, and 
})articularly so of Captain Eusscll, his adjutant general. 
During the battle of Chickamauga, he sent Captain Rus- 
sell to some part of the line to carry an order to General 
Stecdman. While riding along a ridge over which he 
had to pass, Russell became exposed to the rebel lire, 
and fell pierced by several balls, llis horse was wound- 
ed in the hi}), and, riderless, came back to whci'e Granger 
was then engaged in fighting, firing and almost loading ;i 
battery which he had placed in position, and upon whieh 
the enemy were at the time charging. The horse singled 
Granger out in the crowd and excitement, ran up to him, 
fondled about him with his head, and did every thing 
that a dumb brute could do to attract attention. At first, 
Granger, busy at the guns, did not notice the horse, until 
the animal gi-ew troublesome, llis own horse and that 
of Captain Russell were very much alike, and, mistak- 
ing the animal for his own. Granger called to his or- 
derly to take him away. The orderly ex|)laincd that it 
was not 'his horse, and Granger then saw that it was Rus- 
sell's, and noticed that it had been wounded. The truth 
flashed across his mind at once, and he sent several of 
his body-guard in search of the body of his adjutant, the 
faithful horse guiding them to where his master had fall- 
en. Granger forgot "his ruling passion," the artillery 
— forgot to send another aid with the order which Rus- 
sell had, of course, failed to deliver, and when the order- 
lies returned with the dctid body of the captain, Gianger 



276 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

gave himself up to his grief. At last his great sorrow- 
vented itself in an exclamation addressed to General 
Thomas — 

" By G — d, general, he was the best soldier I ever 
knew !" 

After this, the fountain of his tears seemed to dry up. 
He ordered tho body to be cared for, returned to his ar- 
tillery, and became again the rough soldier of the mo- 
ment before. 

" Old Steady," as the soldiers affectionately called Gen- 
eral James B. Steedman, possessed, perhaps, not greater, 
but certainly more available talents than Gordon Gran- 
ger. He was more practical, of equally effective presence, 
equal daring morally, and greater daring mentally. Gor- 
don Granger delights in responsibilities. Steedman dares 
to assume responsibijities which are at times appalling, 
and does so with so much cool impudence as silences you 
in astonishment, and such sublime nerve and boldness as 
hushes you in admiration. He defies argument by the 
preposterousness of his plans, and silences opposition by 
the daring with which he executes them. He hesitates 
at nothing. The magnitude of an undertaking has a 
charm for him, and he accomplishes great things in the 
most unexpected of ways. He is never so great as when 
struggling against great obstacles, or fighting against 
great odds. He is a positive and decided man ; not 
merely opinionated and obstinate, but firm, unflinching, 
and resolute. Clear-headed and cool-headed — a man of 
uncommonly strong common sense — he always knows 
his own mind and always follows it. No man was ever 
less in want of advice, or ever treated it with such con- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 279 

tempt, "Never, under any circumstances, take any body's 
advice, nor refuse any body's information," is an accepted 
motto with Steedman, He did not adopt it from actual 
experience, but received it intuitively, and is constituted, 
not educated, to depend upon and decide for himself Ex- 
perience, education, and natural shrewdness have taught 
him to instinctively divine the true in principle and char- 
acter, and he seldom fails to correctly analyze men and 
motives. The same long experience, thorough education, 
and natural shrewdness have made him a splendid ad- 
ministrative officer, full of resources and ingenuity, which, 
added to the boldness, or perhaps it is best described by 
calling it the impudence, with which he acts, gives as- 
sured success to all his plans. 

These traits of extravagance in the formation and bold- 
ness in the execution of his plans find many illustrations 
in Steedman's public career. Before the war one of the 
great men among Ohio local politicians and a leading 
spirit of the Democrats, he was the ruler of all the Dem- 
ocratic Conventions of his state from 1850 to 1860, and 
was noted for the ingenuity with which he pulled the 
political wires of his party. And not the least remark- 
able fact in connection with this matter is, that he attain- 
ed this controlling position through his election as Super- 
intendent of Public Works, an office which had previ- 
ously been of minor importance and little patronage, but 
which Steedman made, by his positiveness and boldness, 
of such influence and power as to make its occupant a — 
in fact, the power in the party. And by his audacity 
and strong will, exercised with wonderful success over 
men, he retained, and still retains, this power to this day. 



280 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

His bolder confederates used to declare that he was desc 
stroying the party by the irregularity and impossibility 
of his schemes, and thus endeavor to impair his influence ; 
but as, after each election, the party under his leadership 
came out ahead, faith in his boldness of manoeuvre was 
restored, and his ambitious comrades, who wished to be 
also his rivals, would, like the more obedient of the par- 
ty, rally again to his support and fight under his leader- 
ship. His boldness was really nothing more than the 
clear defining of the principle fought for, and in this lay 
the secret of success. It is related of Steedman that on 
one occasion he concocted a curious scheme for reconcil- 
ing the discordant elements which threatened the unity 
of a State Convention of the party called to meet at Co- 
lumbus. He went to the proprietor of the hotel at which 
the delegation usually boarded, and told him that when 
certain men whom he named, and who were the leaders 
of the two factions, arrived in town and called for rooms, 
they were to be told that the house was full, but that 
"probably Mr. Steedman might accommodate them in 
his room,'* which Steedman had taken care should be 
the largest in the house. The trick succeeded, and the 
leaders of the rival factions found themselves, much to 
their surprise, domiciled together in Steedman's room, 
and so intent on watching each other that neither faction 
could hold its proposed caucus. The evening before the 
Convention, having succeeded in getting the leaders of 
the two factions closeted in his room, Steedman exposed 
to each the private schemes of the other, and thus dis- 
armed both. By the plentiful use of argument and the 
judicious use of ridicule, he reconciled the oil and water 



DISTINGUISHED GENEKALS. 281 

(not by lie however), and at last got them to agree on his 
platform and his candidate. I am not certain that he 
was not himself the candidate selected. The joke was 
too good to keep, and the hotel proprietor exposed it to 
the leaders, who went home declaring that they had one 
satisfaction, and that was, that " Jim Steedman had to 
sleep on the floor during the whole of the Convention, 
while they slept in his beds." 

Sleeping on a carpeted floor was not a particularly se- 
vere hardship for the sinewey Steedman, for when under 
great mental or nervous excitement he can not sleep at 
all. At the Cincinnati Convention of 1856, in which he 
was the leading Ohio wire-puller, he went for four days 
and nights without closing his eyes, and three fourths of 
the time he was on his feet on the cold stone floor of the 
Burnett House, " manipulating" the politicians. He can 
neither eat nor drink under great excitement. At the 
battle of Chickamauga he ate nothing for two days, and 
though he carried a canteen of whisky through the entire 
battle, he forgot all about it until after the retreat to Eoss- 
ville, when a wounded soldier in the hospital asked for a 
drink, and Steedman gave him his canteen. 

Steedman was a Douglas Democrat of very strong pro- 
clivities, and very much astonished his friends, when the 
war was about beginning, by arguing in his paper, the 
Toledo Herald and Times, the propriety of permitting 
the Southern states " to go out," i. e., to peaceably secede. 
Such a doctrine from a Douglas Democrat was astonish- 
ing, and the article created much comment. "Without 
saying that the states ought to be allowed to depart, he 
argued that secession was its own punishment; that the 



282 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

seceded states could not hold together if allowed to se- 
cede ; and that a few years only would elapse before they 
would be begging their way back into the Union ; and 
that, while it would cost a river of blood to keep them 
in, a war would not more effectually settle the question 
of secession than if allowed to fall of its own weight. 
Steedman's friends declared him crazy, but he only 
laughed at them, and in the next issue of his paper fin- 
ished his argument, or rather gave the other side of the 
question. Claiming that the first conclusion was correct, 
and that the course suggested would be equally effective 
with war, he then went on to show that it was not the one 
which a great people could pursue ; that peaceable seces- 
sion was a doctrine we ought not to admit merely for the 
sake of the humanitarian argument of " no bloodshed," 
and that nothing was left for the loyal people but the other 
bitter alternative of war. That alternative the people of 
the North, he declared, would unanimously accept in the 
spirit of right and justice, and that it became the people 
to prepare for the blood-letting which was to ensue. The 
first of these articles eventually found its way into Con- 
gress at a time when Steedman's confirmation as briga- 
dier general was pending, and being construed into "Cop- 
perheadism," retarded that confirmation for nearly two 
years, Mr. Ashley, who had defeated Steedman for Con- 
gress, holding it over his head as a balance of power to 
keep the general from running against him for that posi- 
tion. At the next election, instead of agreeing to aban- 
don the field to Ashley, and thus secure his confirmation, 
Steedman took the very opposite grounds, and announced 
bis intention, since he was not likely to be confirmed a 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 283 

brigadier general, of running against Mr. Ashley. This 
had the desired effect, and Ashley hastened, by his rec- 
ommendation and influence, to secure Steedman's confir- 
mation in the Senate, and shortly after, also, that of ma- 
jor general, to which Steedman was nominated after the 
battle of Chickaraauga. 

Steedman 's admiration of Douglas amounted almost to 
idolatry, and to such excess that Douglas's 2^olitical ene- 
mies were held by Steedman to be his personal foes, and 
more than one of them was treated so by him. When 
Steedman was public printer at Washington, Isaac Cook, 
postmaster of Chicago, and a former Douglas Democrat, 
but who had, in order to retain his position, sided with 
Buchanan in his famous quarrel with Douglas, came into 
his office complaining that Douglas had abused him for 
his defection. In relating what had taken place, and in 
what manner Douglas had denounced him, Cook remark- 
ed to Steedman that he had just met Douglas in the Capi- 
tol, and was prepared, in case the " Little Giant" spoke 
to him, to "give him a good caning." • The picture of 
Stephen A. Douglas being caned by "Ike" Cook was too 
much for Steedman. Clearing a table which stood be- 
tween him and Cook at a bound, he seized the astonish- 
ed postmaster by the collar, and with a furious oath ex- 
claimed, 

" You cane Douglas ! You strike Stephen A. Douglas, 
who made you all you are ! Get out of this office, or I'll 
kick you out!" 

Cook began to expostulate, when the infuriated Steed- 
man carried out his threat, and Cook made a hasty and 
inelegant retreat. 



284 PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

Next day President Buchanan sent for Steedman, and 
lectured him regarding his treatment of Cook. Steedman 
had by this time began to look at the comic side of the 
aftair, and listened patiently and good-humorcdly to the 
President's lecture, until Mr. Buchanan alluded to Doug- 
las contemptuously as "the little traitor." Steedman's 
blood boiled witli furv, but by a great effort he control- 
led his passion, and, rising, said, Avith a voice of meas- 
ured calmness, 

" Mr. President, I have been a ^Yarm friend of Stephen 
A. Douglas for many years. I supported him in the con- 
vention which nominated you for the Presidency because 
I believed him to be incomparably the ablest and the best 
man for the position. lihiiik so still. Good-morning, sir." 

A few hours after, Steedman received a note from the 
Postmaster General : 

"Sir, — I am directed by the President to inform you 
that in future Mr. Cornelius Wendell will do the printing 
of this department." 

This was followed by a general withdrawal of govern- 
ment patronage where it was possible, and thus Steed- 
man lost a great deal of his business in consequence of 
his candor. 

I have intimated in the sketch of General Thomas thnt 
the lamous charge of the reserve corps at Chickamauga 
was made at Steedman's suggestion. The idea of ad- 
vancing at that time was a most preposterous one — it 
looked simply suicidal — and I would have been less sur- 
prised if the army had made arrangements to sui-render 
tlian I was to see Steedman's corps charging and carry, 
ing the ridge against Longstreet's corps, which had a few 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 285 

lionrs before scattered a larger force than that of Stccd- 
iiuiu's at a single blow. The charge was not loss of a 
surprise to the enemy, and the fact that it was unexpect- 
oil aiul miaccountnblo uik1(M- the ciivumstances lind nmch 
to do with its success, since it puzzled and eon fused 
both Tjongstreet and Bragg so much as to convince tlieni 
that ^riiouKis had a large reserve force, and to cause a 
long and highly important delay and cessation of hostili- 
ties. 

During this fanunis charge of Steedman's occurred an 
incident which at once illustrates the boldness and ex- 
travagance of the man. The fighting was very heavy, 
the ridge which Longstreet held very high and dillieult, 
and at one time StecHlman saw a jiortion of his line wa- 
vering. Before he could ride forward to their position, 
this wavering brigade broke and began to retii'c, follow- 
ing a flag in the hands of a color-bearer, who had lak(m 
the lead in retreating. Meeting the retiring brigade, 
Steedman grasped the flag from the bearer and waved it 
above his head. All the line saw the action, but only a 
part of it heard his stentorian voice as he cried, 

"Run away, boys — run away like cowards; but the 
flag can't go with 3^ou." 

Not the words, but the advancing flag had the desired 
effect, and these men returned to the eharge, and, led by 
the broad-shouldered, broad -breasted old soldier, they 
carried the hill before them. 

Before going into this battle, Steedman became strange- 
ly impressed with the idea that he was to lose his right 
leg, and, though no believer in presentiments, so forcibly 
and frequently did the thought occur to his mind, that 



286 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

he confided his feelings to some of his staff and friends. 
Among others to whom he mentioned it was Gordon 
Granger, who laughed at the idea, and jocosely asked 
Steedman what he could do for him in case he was 
wounded or killed, 

" Yes," said Steedman to his inquir}'', " you can do me 
a great favor, and I beg that you will attend to it," 

" What is it?" asked Granger, " I swear to do it." 

" See that my name is spelled right in the newspapers. 
The printers always spell it Stead," 

And with this request Steedman rode into the battle. 
An hour or two after it had begun, his horse was shot 
under him, and another was brought for him. He 
mounted him, but the right stirrup-leather becoming 
twisted, he raised the stirrup with his foot, lifting his leg 
at the same time, in order to reach down and catch hold 
of the leather and take the twist out of it, when a mus- 
ket-ball struck the strap, and, cutting it in two, passed 
between his lea- and the saddle. 

"By George !" exclaimed Steedman, "I'm all right!" 
and the troublesome presentiment passed away from his 
mind, for he was now firmly convinced that the bullet 
which had cut the leather was the one which he had had 
intimations to fear. 

It is not generally known, I believe, that Granger and 
Steedman got to the battle-field of Chickamauga against 
orders, Eosecrans had assigned to the reserve corps the 
duty of guarding Rossville Gap, a very important posi- 
tion ; but when the straggling troops of McCook began 
to pour into Chattanooga by this gap, Granger began 
looking about for Rosecrans, in the hope of getting or- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 287 

tiers to advance to Thomas's aid. While Granger was 
looking for orders, Steedman marched forward, and it 
was thus that he happened to reach Thomas's position 
before Granger did. Steedman has acted without orders 
in this way on more than one important occasion. He 
fought the battle of Carnifcx Ferry, Western Virginia, 
without either orders or assistance, and defeated Floyd's 
brigade with a single regiment. He was ordered to hold 
Chattanooga when Hood marched against Nashville; 
but, finding no very formidable force near him, and being 
cut off from communication with Thomas at Nashville, 
Steedman left a small force of negro troops in Chattanoo- 
ga, and started with a large force of white and negro vol- 
unteers for Nashville. Hood's cavalry advance cut the 
railroad and precipitated his trains into Mill Creek, a 
small stream a few miles from Nashville, but he fought 
his way through on foot to the city, and appeared with 
his ten thousand men before General Thomas's head- 
quarters. To Thomas's look of inquiry, and perhaps of 
censure, Steedman replied, 

" General, I was cut off from communication, and have 
come here in hopes I may get Leave to re-enforee Nash- 
ville, and take a hand in the battle." 

He got the order and the opportunity. In his report 
of his participation in the battle, he states that he made 
the movement by General Thomas's order, but docs not 
explain how he obtained it. 

Steedman had great faith in negro troops. One of his 
most daring efforts was that of leading a thousand ne- 
groes in a charge at Dalton, Georgia, upon Wheeler's cav- 
alry, twenty -five hundred strong, defeating them, and 



288 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

capturing the place. His main force at tlie battle of 
Nasliville was two brigades of negro troops, and their 
conduct was highly commended by him. He made much 
character and great personal popularit}^, while in com- 
mand of the Department of Georgia, by his efforts in al- 
leviating the condition of the freedmen. An incident il- 
lustrative of his policy with the freedmen, and his ideas 
of justice as applied to them, is told of him while station- 
ed at Augusta, Georgia. 

A railroad contractor came to him one day and asked 
for a military force to compel the negroes to work in re- 
pairing the line from Savannah to Augusta. 

" They won't work, general," said the contractor, 

" How much do you pay them ?" asked the general. 

" Ten dollars per month," was the answer. 

" The devil !" exclaimed Steedman. " Give 'em thirty, 
and see whether they'll work then. I never gave a man 
less than eightj^-seven and a half cents a day in my life. 
I think I could get a brigade at that price here. You 
try it; and, I say," he added, "if I hear of your offering 
less, I'll try you." 

The contractor tried the plan, and found he had no use 
for a military guard, and no work for half the applicants 
who swarmed about his office. 

Steedman in appearance is like a hale, hearty farmer, 
with stout, burly form, largely made, and of great physic- 
al power and endurance. He weighs over two hundred 
pounds, and is one of the strongest men in the country. 
He is as frank as he is bold, and as honest as impudent. 

"When General Rosecrans retired to Chattanooga dur- 
ing the battle of Chickamauga, thus abandoning his army. 



DISTINGUISHED GKNP]RALS. 289 

he committed the grand mistake of his military career. 
He soon found this to be so, and soon felt and knew that 
his unfortunate retreat had left him utterly defenseless. 
He feared at first to condemn any one, and endeavored 
to make friends with all. He could not condemn McCook 
and Crittenden, for in running away from the battle-field 
they had only followed his example, and to condemn 
them for this was to condemn himself. Some victim was 
necessary as an explanation of his defeat and retreat, and 
Generals Thomas J. Wood and James S. Negley were se- 
lected, the latter before and Wood after the removal of 
Eosecrans. Negley was a volunteer officer, who had in- 
curred the enmity of Brannin, Davis, Baldy Smith, and 
one or two regular officers of inferior rank, and he was 
sacrificed by liosccrans in order to obtain the support of 
what was known as the " regular clique" of the army, 
and which embraced these and other regular officers. 
Wood was not relieved by Eosecrans as Nogley was, nor 
did Eosecrans venture to publicly censure him until after 
his own removal, when, very much to every body's sur- 
prise, Eosecrans condemned Wood in his official report 
for having caused the disaster to the army. The fact is 
that Eosecrans was not entitled to make a report of the 
battle of Chickamauga, for he did not see it, was not 
present, and, as written, his report, after its description 
of the general topography of North Alabama and Geor- 
gia, is merely a lame apology for his own strange con- 
duct. 

The two men thus made the scapegoats of Eosecrans 
were men of more than ordinary abilities, and it is a 
great pity that the reputation of such men should ever 

N 



290 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

be placed in the hands of such generals as Eosecrans, 
General Negley, though not educated for the army, was 
one of the best-read officers in military matters that we 
had in the volunteer service, and possessed a natural 
adaptation for, and many qualities as a leader. He was 
a man of quick perception and decided judgment, intu- 
itive talents which "stood him in hand" on more than 
one occasion, as, for instance, at Stone Eiver, where he 
replied to Breckenridge's assault of his troops by a coun- 
ter-charge which, made with great force and rapidity, 
turned the fortunes of the day, and won an advantage 
which decided Bragg to abandon the field of which he 
was still master. Bragg relieved Breckenridge from his 
command for his defeat by Negley. 

Among the most important services rendered by Gen- " 
eral Negley, or by any other general officer of the army, 
were the operations embracing the reconlioissance and 
battle at Dug Gap, Georgia, on September 11, 1863. He 
commanded the advance of the centre column of Eose- 
crans's army in crossing Lookout Mountain. The three 
columns had been widely separated — fifty miles inter- 
vening between the right wing and centre, and about 
thirty between the centre and left wing. Knowing this, 
Bragg had concentrated his forces in front of the centre, 
abandoning Chattanooga in such a way as to indicate he 
was in full retreat. Eosecrans ordered him to be pur- 
sued, and General Negley, debouching from Stevens's 
Gap of Lookout Mountain, was ordered to take Lafayette, 
Georgia. General Negley was advised and had reported 
that Bragg was concentrating his forces at that very 
point, but the report was discredited by General Eose- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 291 

crans, and ISTcgley was ordered forward. He advanced 
cautiously on the morning of September 11, in command 
of his own and Baird's divisions, and, as he anticipated, 
soon encountered the enemy. He drove them for some 
time, but soon found that he had Bragg's whole army in 
his front and on his flanks. It was subsequently dis- 
covered that Bragg had issued positive and peremptory • 
orders to Generals Hindman, Hill, Buckner, and Polk, to 
attack and destroy Negley, promising himself the easy 
capture of the other columns in detail. But Negley was 
too shrewd to be caught thus ; although his trains and 
those of Baird encumbered the road in his rear, which 
the enemy soon threatened by moving on his flanks, he 
succeeded in saving every wagon and in slowly retiring 
on Stevens's Gap, where he could afford to battle with 
thrice his numbers. This engagement, which lasted all 
the day, was the first convincing proof which Rosecrans 
had of the presence of Bragg, and the first premonition 
of danger. It induced him to gather his scattered col- 
umns together. General Negley's discretion and valor 
on this occasion were not only alike commended by 
Generals Rosecrans and Thomas, but by General Bragg, 
who, in his anger at their failure to destroy him, arrested 
Hindman and Polk, and preferred charges against them. 
These charges, which attributed Negley's escape from this 
danger to delay on the part of the rebel officers arrested, 
were never sustained, and they were returned to duty. 
The fact was that Negley had outwitted them, and had 
forewarned Rosecrans in time to save the army. 

When the battle of Chickamauga began, General Neg- 
ley's division was on the move, marching to the sound 



292 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

of the artillery, and it reached the field just in time to 
push forward on the right and fill up a gap created by 
the dispersion of General Yan Cleve's division. In the 
desperate fight which ensued, the rebel General Preston 
Smith was killed, and the .enemy driven in confusion. 
On the second day of the battle General Negley's divi- 
•sion was not so fortunate. One brigade was sent to the 
extreme left, another was placed in the centre, and the 
third held in reserve. Later in the day the general him- 
self was taken from the command of the" division and 
ordered to the command of a number of batteries which 
were concentrated on a hill on a new line to which it 
was proposed to retire, and which were intended to cover 
the retrograde movement. Before this manoeuvre could 
be executed, however, the right wing and centre of the 
army were broken, and the troops fell back in confusion. 
The enemy charged upon the guns of General Negley in 
great force, and, moving upon the flanks, greatly threat- 
ened their capture. By great exertions the general suc- 
ceeded in carrying them from the field without the aid 
of any infantry supports, and thus saved about fifty guns 
from capture. 

On retiring to Eossville, he found himself, in the ab- 
sence of Eosecrans, McCook, and Crittenden at Chatta- 
nooga, the senior ofl&cer in that part of the field, and he 
immediately began the work of reorganizing the troops 
of the several divisions gathered indiscriminately there. 
He succeeded in reorganizing a large number of men, 
and, selecting a strong position at Rossville Gap, endeav- 
ored to open communication with General Thomas. This 
was found impracticable, however. During the night 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 293 

General Thomas retired to this position, and, forming a 
junction with General Negley, ordered him to post the 
forces along the line selected by him, and prepared to 
give the enemy a warm reception on the next morning. 
Bragg was too wise to attack, and contented himself with 
merely reconnoitering the position. On the succeeding 
day the troops were retired to Chattanooga, and prepara- 
tions w^e made for the siege which followed. During 
this siege General Negley was relieved from duty by 
General Eosecrans in such a manner and so unjustly that 
he was induced to demand an examination into his offi- 
cial conduct. This was granted ; a court of inquiry was 
convened and an investigation made, resulting in General 
Negley's acquittal. The official record of the court states 
in conclusion " that General Negley exhibited through- 
out the day (the second day of the battle) and the follow- 
ing night great activity and zeal in the discharge of his 
duties, and the court do not find in the evidence before 
them any ground for censure." General Negley, on the 
conclusion of the trial, was ordered to report to the Ad- 
jutant General at Washington, and did so, but soon after 
resigned. He is now engaged in the cultivation of liis 
farm near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 

Negley is one of the most accomplished horticulturists 
in the country, and when in the field of war his leisure 
hours were devoted to the study of various fruits, flow- 
ers, and shrubs in which the Southern fields and woods 
abounded. Many a march, long, tedious, exhausting, 
has been rendered delightful to his staff by his interest- 
ing descriptive illustrations of the hidden beauties and 
virtues of fragrant flowers and repulsive weeds. I have 



294 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

known him to spend hours in explaining the properties 
of shrubs and wild-flowers which grew about his bivouac 
or head-quarters, and he would, when on the march, fre- 
quently spring from his saddle to pluck a sensitive plant, 
that he might " point a moral" in showing how soon it, 
like life or fame, withered at the touch of death or dis- 
grace. He was a remarkably well-made man — some- 
thing of the robust, sinewy frame of Steedman and Buell. 
His grasp was like a vice. He was as tough as he was 
strong, and as elastic as enduring. He was an exceed- 
ingly prompt and active man, and his division of the 
Army of the Cumberland was by far its best in drill, ap- 
pointments, and in its commissariat. Negley's troops 
used to boast that while he commanded they had never, 
under any circumstances, wanted for food or clothing, 
and they used frequently to call him "Commissary Gen- 
eral Negley." 

General Thomas J. Wood might in some slight respects 
be compared to Negley, but they appear to better effect 
when drawn in contrast. Negley was considered a mar- 
tinet among volunteers, Wood a martinet among regu- 
lars. I do not mean martinet in the sense which a few 
brainless officers have given the title by their illustra- 
tions of it, but in its proper sense, as indicating a thor- 
ough and efficient disciplinarian. Both Negley and Wood 
made their men soldiers through discipline, and there 
were no better soldiers in the army. Their fate, too, 
was similar. The advancement of each was slow and 
labored, and their friends began to fear that their pro- 
motion was to be of that ungenerous, posthumous order 
which was too frequent, and which always looked to me 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS, 295 

like giving a handsome tomb-stone to a man unjustly 
treated all his life. 

General Wood was a captious officer, but a decided, 
brave, and energetic one. History, which is rapidly be- 
ginning to be just, and which will grow harsher every 
day, and more just with all her harshness, will say that 
it was highly proper that the appointment of General 
Wood as major general should read as it did — " vice Crit- 
tenden, resigned," The place which that clever gentle- 
man, but very poor soldier, Thomas L. Crittenden, filled, 
was properly Tom Wood's years before he got it, for he 
really filled it. Always under the command of Critten- 
den, he was ever at his right hand and. as his right hand, 
and furnished him with all the military brains, and form- 
ed for him all the military character he ever had. It 
may be impolite to say this now, but it is anticipating 
history but a short time. This is a decree which must 
be submitted to eventually, and why not now ? 

When the army of Eosecrans was drawing itself up in 
front of Murfreesborough, Tennessee, the very day before 
the battle of December 81, 1862, Crittenden's wing was 
on the left, and Tom Wood's division held its advanca 
On approaching the rebel position. Wood, of course, came 
to a halt, and, reconnoitering the position, reported to 
Crittenden that the enemy were intrenched in his imme- 
diate front. Crittenden went forward to Wood's position 
and satisfied himself of the presence of the enemy in 
force, and approved the halt. A short time after he re- 
ceived a communication from General Eosecrans stating 
that General David S. Stanley, who, with his cavalr}'- 
corps, had gone to Murfreesborough, reported that the 



296 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

enemy had evacuated, and lie tlierefore ordered Critten- 
den to cross Stone River and occupy the town, Critten- 
den showed the order to Wood, and told him that he 
must advance and occupy the town. Wood argued that 
Rosecrans's information, to his own and to Crittenden's 
knowledge, was incorrect, and that, of course, it would 
not do to implicitly obey the order. Crittenden thought 
that its terms were positive, and no course was left him 
but to obey it. Wood urged Crittenden to report the 
circumstances, announce to Rosecrans that the movement 
was delayed an hour in order to report those facts, and 
stand ready to obey it if then repeated. It was some 
time before Wood could make Crittenden understand 
that this was the proper proceeding under the circum- 
stances. He rode back to Rosecrans and reported the 
facts, when that officer, examining for himself, approved 
of the course pursued, and taught Crittenden that posi- 
tive orders were not always to be implicitly obeyed. 

In three years of active warfore Tom Wood won honor 
from every action, from Shiloh to Nashville. The dis- 
asters of his corps were not disasters for him. He came 
out of the crucibles refined and sparkling with renewed 
glory. Whether proving, as he did at Shiloh, that he 
had made by his discipline veterans out of men who had 
never seen a battle — whether stemming the adverse cur- 
rent of battle at Chickamauga — whether scaling with ir- 
resistible power the heights of Mission Ridge, and carry- 
ing at the point of the bayonet the strongly-manned posi- 
tion, which looked strong enough to hold itself — whether 
repulsing the charge at Franklin, or making it at Nash- 
ville, he stands forth prominent as one of the coolest, self- 




OLlVEll O. llOiVAItl). 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 299 

possessed, and gallant spirits of the day. I was glad to 
see him at the close of the war joining hands with his 
noble friend Kousseau for the redemption of Kentucky 
from slavery, and uniting with that band of progressive 
spirits to whom she will in a few years acknowledge that 
she owes her prosperity and welfiire. 

Among the many original characters whom I met, and 
who had been developed by the war, and by no means 
the least remarkable of them, was Major General Oliver 
Otis Howard. In many respects he was not unlike Gen- 
eral George H. Thomas, possessing the same quiet, digni- 
fied, and reserved demeanor, the same methodical turn 
of mind, and the same earnest, industrious habits: but 
Howard was Thomas with the addition of several pecul- 
iarities, not to say eccentricities. He had none of Gen- 
eral Thomas's cold-bloodedness, and though, like him, a 
statue in dignity of demeanor, Howard, unlike Thomas, 
had blood in him that often flowed warm with sympathy, 
and pulses that sometimes beat quicker with excitement. 
General Thomas guided himself in his course through 
life by his immediate surroundings, adapting himself, 
without sycophancy, however, to present circumstances 
without regard to past consistency, and was in power and 
favor at all times, because content to obey as long as he 
remained a subordinate. Howard began life with certain 
aims in view, and sailed a straight course, remaining al- 
ways constant to his principles, and consequently finding 
himself, like all men with either firm principles or ad- 
vanced ideas, at times unpopular. He had little of Gen- 
eral Thomas's practicability, and General Thomas had 
little of Howard's faith in the strength and final triumph 



300 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

of great principles. One trusted in the physical strength, 
the other in the innate power of the principles of a great 
cause. Thomas believed the late war the triumph of 
good soldiers over their inferiors — the triumph of num- 
bers, skill, and strength; Howard will tell 3'ou, with a 
flush of feeling and a slight touch of the extravagance 
of an enthusiast, that it was the triumph of right over 
wrong. Thomas thinks, with Napoleon, that God sides 
with the force that has the most cannon ; Howard be- 
lieves, with Bryant, that " the eternal years of God" are 
truths ; and with the Psalmist, that 

" Great is truth, and mighty above all things." 

The faith of Howard in the principles which he advo- 
cated was sublime. I knew of but one other who began 
the war with loftier purposes of universal good, purer 
motives of right, justice, and liberty, or truer ideas of 
the nature of the struggle as a crusade against slavery 
and ignorance, and he was not a general — only a major 
of infantry, though a brilliant " first section" graduate at 
West Point, but worthy ten times over of greater rank 
than the army could grant. Nothing could have been 
more beautiful than the firm faith which -William H. Si- 
dell felt from the first in the final triumph of the right, 
not merely in restoring the country to its former glory, 
unity, and strength, but in restoring and rejuvenating it, 
purified of that which was at once its weakness and its 
shame. It is somewhat of a digression to run off from 
Howard in this manner to speak of Major Sidell, but 
every reader who knew the man will think it pardonable. 
Sidell was a man of firm convictions, and hence a man 
of great influence. It used to seem to me that he was 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 301 

intended for the single purpose of making up other peo- 
ple's minds, and deciding for his acquaintances what was 
right and what wrong. He possessed a singularly effect- 
ive, epigrammatical style of conversation, and his gen- 
erally very original ideas were always expressed with 
.great force and vigor. When he got hold of a great 
idea, he would talk it at you without cessation, repeating 
it as frequently as he found a hearer, and persist with 
something of the manner of those religious preachers 
who pride themselves on " preaching in season and out 
of season" until conviction followed. His ideas possess- 
ed not only value, but his language had a stamp as coin- 
age has, and both ideas and language passed current. 
His ideas, oft repeated, thoroughly inculcated, found wide 
circulation in the army with which he served-, and it was 
often amusing to hear his language rejjeated in places 
where they were least expected, and by persons who 
were never suspected of possessing minds capable of re- 
taining grand ideq,s, or hearts true enough to compre- 
hend great principles. His ideas were traceable in the 
language of the soldiers, relieved and often illustrated by 
the happy use of their familiar, commonplace "slang." 
They got strangely mixed up in the orders of command- 
ing generals with whom he served, and I have even de- 
tected Sidell's undeniable stamp in one of the Executive 
documents. 

The great charm of the man was the effective style in 
which he advocated the firm convictions of his mind, 
and expressed the deep sympathies of his nature; and 
no man could rise from a conversation on the topics to 
which his mind naturally reverted, whenever he found a 



802 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

■willing listener, without feeling the better for it, and with 
a better opinion of humanity in general. If he had a 
fault, it was that he conceived too much. His was 

"A vigorous, various, versatile mind," 

which grasped a subject as if to struggle with it, and pur- 
sued an idea " to the death." It was, however, only his 
convictions in regard to great principles that he incul- 
cated and forced upon others. He originated so much 
that he executed too little, and never gave practical effect 
to two or three of his mechanical inventions which have 
made fortunes for more practical and more shallow men. 
Sidell was in some respects the only counterpart I ever 
met to Sherman, and the parallel between them only 
held good with regard to their head work. They con- 
ceived equally, but Sherman executed most. 

General Howard possessed these same attributes of 
firm, honest conviction, and the same fixedness of prin- 
ciples which distinguished Sidell. His moral honesty 
won him more admiration than his speeches or his abili- 
ties as a soldier ; for, though energetic and persevering 
in his administration as a commander, and generally suc- 
cessful in his military efforts, his reputation in the army 
was more that of the Christian gentleman than of the 
sreat soldier. It was throuo-h the constant observation 
of his Christian duties that he won the title of the 
" Havelock of the war" and the reputation of an exem- 
plar. He was strictly temperate, never imbibing intox- 
icating drinks, never profane, and always religious. 
There was not a great excess of religion in the army, 
particularly among the general officers, and Howard 
therefore became a prominent example, the more partic- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 303 

ularly as religion was looked upon by a great majority 
of the men only to be ridiculed. There was very little 
of religious feeling among the men of the army, save 
among those in the hospital. The hos]3ital was the 
church of the camp, and there was little religious fervor 
among our veterans which did not date from the hospi- 
tal. The soldier in the hospital was another being from 
the soldier in camp. He abandoned his bad habits when 
he lost his health or received his wound, and grew seri- 
ous as he grew sick. The lion of the camp was invaria- 
bly the lamb of the hospital. The almost universal habit 
of swearing in camp was abandoned in the hospital ; pro- 
fanity gave place to prayer, and the sick veteran became 
meek, talked in soft tones, and never failed to thank you 
for the smallest kindnesses where before he had laughed 
at them. I have often seen the convalescents gather in 
the sunshine to sing familiar hymns, and generally the 
wildest, in camp were the most earnest in these religious 
exercises. 

When Howard took command of the Army of the 
Tennessee, an old officer remarked that there was at last 
one chaplain in it. That particular army had not paid 
much attention to religion, believing, like Sherman, that 
crackers and meat were more necessary ; and at first the 
men displaj^ed but little respect for the "intruder from 
the Potomac," as much, indeed, from the fact that he came 
from the Potomac army as that he was what the men 
called " nothing but a parson." A very short time after 
taking command of this army, Howard gave orders that 
the batteries of his command, then in position besieging 
Atlanta, should not fire on the enemy on the Sabbath, 



804 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

unless it became absolutely necessary. The enemy soon 
heard of this order, and generally busied themselves on 
the Sabbath in casemating their guns and otherwise 
strengthening their works in Howard's front, exposing 
themselves with impunity, satisfied that Howard's men 
would keep the Sabbath holy, though doing so under 
compulsion. The soldiers did not like this forced silence, 
declaring that " it wasn't Grant's nor Sherman's way, nor 
Black Jack's (Logan) neither ;" and one of the general of- 
ficers went so far as to say that " a man who neglected 
his duty because it happened to be Sunday was doubtless 
a Christian, but not much of a soldier." The troops soon 
learned, however, that Howard was also a soldier ; and 
when, a year afterward, he was relieved of the command 
by General Logan, he had won the love and admiration 
of his men. 

General Howard would have liked to have been 
thought the representative man of the Army of the Ten- 
nessee, but there were no points of resemblance between 
him and the real representative man of that army. The 
Western soldiers were of a peculiar race, and under 
Grant the Army of the Tennessee, the representative 
army of the West, was drilled, marched, and fought into 
a peculiar type of an army. Sherman took command of 
it subsequently, and gave it many peculiarities, not all of 
which were creditable ; but neither Grant nor Sherman 
were its representatives. Howard endeavored to reform 
the army morally and in its discipline, which even under 
Grant had been bad, and under Sherman very lax indeed, 
but failed to impart to it as a body any of the qualities 
which shone so prominently in his character. The real 




JOHN A. LOtiAN. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 307 

representative man of that remarkable army was General 
John A. Logan, of Illinois. 

" Black Jack Logan," as be was facetiously called by 
his soldiers, in consequence of his dark complexion, is 
the very opposite in appearance and manner of Howard. 
Logan is a man of Sheridan's short and stumpy style of 
figure. Sheridan used to be called by the card-playing 
soldiers the " Jack of Clubs," and Logan was known as 
the "Jack of Spades." Logan is, too, the same daring, 
enthusiastic, and vigorous fighter that Sheridan is. He 
will always be prominent among the Marshal Keys of 
the war for the Union, and belongs to that representative 
class of fighting generals of which Sheridan, Hancock, 
Rousseau, and Hooker are the most distinguished grad- 
uates. A man of great daring, and full of dash and vim, 
Logan was, like the others,<%reat only as a leader, and 
made no pretensions to generalship. He had the habit 
of decision to perfection, and went at every thing appar- 
ently without previous thought. He is a man who, 
possessing, all that vigor and boldness of heart which 
great physical strength and health gives, united with a 
naturally warm, enthusiastic, and daring temperament, 
engaged heart and soul in every task that allured or in- 
terested him, and never abandoned it as a failure. A 
man of action, he was untiring, and, did he more def- 
initely lay out his plans in life, would win a front place 
among the great men of the age. Not that he is vacil- 
lating, nor yet indecisive, but simply because he is not 
thoughtful, far-seeing, and politic, but impulsive. He is, 
indeed, too passionate to ever be politic. 

"With little prudence in planning, Logan had the dar- 



308 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ing to act, and his decision was sbown in frequent emer- 
gencies. During the battle of Hope Church, Georgia, the 
rebels made a sudden charge upon a battery posted in 
Logan's line, and, before being repulsed, had secured two 
of the guns, which they attempted to carry off with them. 
Logan was busy in another part of the field, but, seeing 
the rebels retiring unpursued with the trophies of their 
charge, he dashed up to one of the regiments which had 
repulsed them, and exclaiming to his men, " Bring back 
those guns, you d — d rascals," led them in a charge for 
their recovery. The men followed him without regard 
to formation, and overtook and defeated the rebels before 
they could reach their lines, and secured the captured ar- 
tillery. 

On another occasion, when new to the service, a por- 
tion of Logan's regiment rAitinied, and, stacking arms, 
refused to do duty. The adjutant informed Colonel 
Logan of the difficulty, and he, on hearing it, exclaimed, 
"Stacked arms! the devil they have!" Then, pausing 
a second as he considered the emergency, he ^continued, 
" Well, adjutant, I'll give them enough of stacking 
arms !" Accordingly, he formed the remaining four com- 
panies in line with loaded muskets, and stood them over 
the malcontents, whom he compelled to stack and un- 
stack arms for twelve hours. 

Logan's readiness to act was not always acceptable to 
his immediate commanders, because perhaps in some in- 
stances his activity was a reproach to less decisive men. 
Indecision and too great precaution in others was revolt- 
ing to him ; and I think I never saw a more thoroughly 
disgusted man than Loo-an was on the occasion of the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 309 

failure before Eesaca, Georgia, on May 9, 1864, conse- 
quent on the refusal of McPherson to assault the town. 
Not only was Logan's offer to accomplish the desired 
object declined as impracticable, but the campaign was 
robbed of its promised fruits by that refusal, and not only 
Logan, but the whole country had reason to be disgusted. 
Logan took no pains to conceal his chagrin and disgust. 
The flicts of the unfortunate affair were about these : 

The Army of the Tennessee, at the time forming the 
I'ight wing of Sherman's Grand Army, had, on the morn- 
ing of May 9, debouched through the narrow defile of 
Snake Creek Gap, and appeared before Eesaca, McPher- 
son having positive orders to occupy the place. The 
movement through the Gap had turned Joe Johnston's 
position at Dalton, placed the Army of the Tennessee in 
his rear, and, if Eesaca had been taken, would have closed 
the direct route to Atlanta, and forced the rebels to re- 
treat by circuitous and almost impracticable roads, and at 
the probable cost of all his trains and heavy guns. There 
was no good reason, had Eesaca been carried, why John- 
ston should not have been seriously damaged, and per- 
haps his army dispersed; and there is no good reason 
why Eesaca was not taken on this occasion. The force 
defending it was the small garrison of a ten-gun fort and 
sixteen hundred dismounted cavalry under the rebel Gen- 
eral Canty, who were engaged in patroling and observ- 
ing the Oostanaula Eiver. Johnston could not, on May 9, 
have concentrated two thousand men at Eesaca for its 
defense. General McPherson had not less than thirty 
thousand men in front of the position, and not a mile dis- 
tant from the fort. Unfortunately, General Granville M. 



310 . PERSONAL EECOLLECTIONS OF 

Dodge, commanding tlie Sixteenth Corps, and a man of 
even less decision than McPherson, happened on that 
morning to be in advance, and Logan was in reserve. On 
approaching Eesaca, and after occupying a low ridge of 
hills commanding the town and the river in its front, Gen- 
eral Dodge halted his command and began to reconnoitre. 
The delay in the advance brought McPherson and Logan 
to the front, and from a prominent knob of the range of 
hills which had been carried by Dodge, they examined 
the town and calculated in their own minds the chances 
of carrying the position. Dodge finally reported the 
passage of the river and the capture of the fort as imprac- 
ticable, and declared it as his belief that a large force was 
then in the town. Logan rather warmly and hastily dis- 
puted this, and declared that he could carry the fort and 
town with his corps. General McPherson revolved the 
matter over in his mind, and as the woman who hesitates 
is lost, so with the commander who in an emergency stops 
to calculate, he lost the opportunity. While he was hes- 
itating and doubting between the arguments of Dodge 
and the assertions and declarations of Logan — for Logan 
is not the man to offer arguments when the opportunity 
for demonstration is at hand — time was consumed, and 
finally, much to the disgust of every body who had come 
out to fight, McPlierson ordered the whole army back to 
Snake Creek Gap, and employed a large part of it all the 
ensuing night in throwing up works to defend a defile 
which was apparently strong enough to defend itself. 

The next day Sherman began moving the rest of the 
army through Snake Creek Gap, and at the same time 
Johnston evacuated Daiton, and began marching on Ec- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 311 

sacfi. At night on that or the next day, May 11th, while 
General Logan and staff and myself were at supper, Gen- 
eral John M. Palmer and others on the march stopped 
at Logan's tent, and were asked to take a cup of coffee. 
While we were eating, the conversation turned on the 
situation, and I remarked that evidently "Joe Johnston 
had been caught sleeping." Logan and Palmer both in 
a breath answered that it wasn't at all certain that John- 
ston was napping, but that, on the contrary, it was very 
improbable that we could do more than strike his rear 
guard at Eesaca. This turned out, in the end, to be the 
case. The whole of Sherman's army was not ready to 
advance until the 12th of May, when it moved forward, 
Logan this time in advance, and occupied, after consider- 
able hard lighting with Johnston's rear division, the very 
same position which McPberson had previously held on 
the 9th, and from which, even with Eesaca uncaptured, 
Johnston would have had great diflEiculty in dislodging 
him. But now, three days behind time, Sherman, and 
Thomas, and Logan, and a number of others who had 
gathered on the bald knob to which I have before al- 
luded as overlooking Eesaca, had the melancholy pleas- 
ure of witnessing Joe Johnston's army filing through the 
town and taking up positions defending it, and covering 
the bridges and fords of the Oostanaula. 

When he had first secured this position, Logan order- 
ed one of his batteries, commanded by Captain De Gress, 
to take position on the knob I have mentioned, and open 
upon the bridge and fort. The order was obeyed with 
alacrity. Courage is a sort of magnet which attracts its 
like ; it surrounded Logan with men of his own stamp, 



312 PERSOISrAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

among whom were Major Charles J. Stolbrand and Cap- 
tain Francis De Gress, and it was not long before these 
two had the battery posted and ready to open at Logan's 
command. I was at the time on this knob, and antici- 
pated seeing some handsome artillery practice and a great 
scattering among the rebels, very plainly visible below, 
crossing the river and moving about in the fort, not 
much over a mile distant. But it was destined that the 
scattering should be among our own forces supporting 
De Cress's battery and lying along the ridge, and partic- 
ularly was there to be " much scattering" on my part. I 
had noticed, as had others, the peculiar appearance of 
the hill on which the battery was posted and on which 
I stood, but had not suspected why the change had been 
wrought. The trees, with the exception of a single tall, 
straight oak left standing in the centre and on the very 
summit of the knob, had been carefully felled, and the 
tops thrown down the sides and slope of the hill, form- 
ing a sort of abatis, and making the approach to the sum- 
mit rather difficult. Several persons had made inquiries 
and suggestions as to the purpose of the rebels in clearing 
the hill and forming the abatis around it, but it was not 
until De Cress had opened fire on Resaca that the mys- 
tery was solved. Then it suddenly flashed on the minds 
of all simultaneously with the flash of the first rebel gun 
in the fort in Resaca. The first round of De Cress came 
very near being his last, for the ten guns in the rebel 
fort beyond the river opened simultaneously on him, 
and every shot fell among the guns and troops support- 
in o[ them. It was then discovered that the hill on which 
De Gress had posted his guns had been cleared by the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 313 

rebels and one tree left standing as a target for artillery 
practice. For at least a year the gunners in the fort in 
Eesaca had been practicing by firing at this tree, and 
they had the range of the hill to such accuracy that ev- 
ery shot fell in our midst. The first broadside sent me 
to cover, and I hastily dropped behind a huge oak stump 
left standing, and which afforded ample protection. Here 
I could see the rebels at their guns, watch De Gress and 
Stolbrand at theirs, and, by turning half around, see the 
troops which lay near me supporting the battery. The 
first shells thrown by the rebels had wounded several of 
these, and their cries of pain, as they were carried to the 
rear, could be plainly heard, and did not in any great 
measure add to my comfort, or increase my confidence in 
the invulnerability of my position, and I began to con- 
clude it was not bomb proof. Meantime the rebels were 
firing vigorously, and after two or three shots De Gress 
was silenced — not that his guns were disabled, but that 
the men could not work them. The place was literally 
too hot to allow of a man exposing himself, and all but 
Logan, Stolbrand, and De Gress sought cover, and clung 
as closely as possible to the ground. These three, how- 
ever, stood their ground, very foolishly I thought at the 
time, and. how they escaped being struck I can not con- 
ceive. The fire of the rebels was singularly accurate, and 
from the cries of our wounded it was apparent that it was 
also very effective. I had been lying behind the stump 
whose protection 1 had sought for twenty minutes, look- 
ing with interest at the firing of the rebels, when a shell 
from one of their guns struck directly in front of the 
stump, entered and plowed up the ground for a distance 

O 



814 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

of ten feet, sending tlie soil high in the air hke spray, 
and then, striking the stump, bounded high above it, 
and fell about five feet behind me Mrith a heavy tlmg! 
The soil which had been thrown up by it descended 
about me, and, as I crouched low, making myself as 
small as possible, and wishing myself even smaller, liter- 
ally buried me alive. I thought every piece of the soil 
which struck me was going through me. At last, when 
the shell descended near me, my demoralization was com- 
plete. Fearing that it would explode, I sprang up from 
my recumbent position and ran with all, my speed to the 
left of the line. As I did so I came to the abatis of tim- 
ber, heaped at least four feet high. I never stopped to 
consider, but, without hesitation, made a tremendous leap, 
and cleared the obstructions at a bound, amid the loud 
laughter of a whole brigade, which, looking on, actually 
rose np to laugh at and applaud my hasty retreat. When 
I reached a place of safety out of range of the rebels, and 
beyond reach of the particular shell which I had so much 
dreaded, I found that the confounded thing had not ex- 
ploded. I was too much demoralized, however, to con- 
template going back while the rebels held the range of 
that hill, and so sat down, carefully getting behind an- 
other stump, to receive the congratulations of tlje colonel 
and adjutant of one of the supporting regiments on the 
gymnastic abilities which I had just displayed. 

It was not until sundown and after the cessation of the 
firing that I ventured to return to the hill. Here Logan 
and Stolbrand still remained, and Sherman, Thomas, and 
others had also come up. While the others consulted 
together Logan sat aside, leaning against my stump, and 




JOUN \V. GEARY. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 317 

looking exceedingly glum and disgusted. When I ap- 
proached him he looked up and laughed, evidently at 
the recollection of my demoralization and flight. I sat 
down beside him and said, 

" Well, general, you see I was right last night. Some 
body was asleep." 

" Yes," said he, in answer, " but you was mistaken in 
the person. It was not Joe Johnston who was napping." 

There was good reason to be morose over this affair. 
The failure of McPherson on the 9th of May made the 
campaign of Atlanta a necessity. Had Logan, instead of 
Dodge, been in advance of McPherson's army on the 9th 
of May, there would have been no Hope Church affair, 
no Kenesaw Mountain sacrifice, no battles on the Chatta- 
hoochee, or before Atlanta, or at Jonesborough, for the 
campaign would have been ended, and Atlanta, captured 
at Eesaca in the dispersion of Joe Johnston's army. 

Something of this same ability in execution which was 
developed in Logan and the others to whom I have al- 
luded characterized General John W. Geary, of Pennsyl- 
vania, and few officers labored more zealously or more 
effectively than he did. His adventurous disposition, 
developed early in life, and leading him to a remarkably 
varied career, could not be other than the result of a bold 
and daring nature, which led him early to seek activity 
when he might have chosen a more passive but less glo- 
rious life. His enthusiastic ardor for military life ren- 
dered him in his youth an adept in all military matters, 
and led him naturally into the military service of the 
country. He was built, too, for a soldier, possessing a 
rare 'physique^ his tall, burly figure reminding one of 



318 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Rousseau or Steedman. His adventurous career began 
in Mexico, where, as colonel of the Second Pennsylvania, 
he served with distinction under Scott, from Vera Cruz to 
the capital, suffering wounds at Chepultepec and at the 
assault of the city of Mexico. After the war, sighing, 
like Hooker, for the excitements of California, he went to 
San Francisco, and was soon after appointed postmaster, 
and subsequently elected mayor. President Pierce ap- 
pointed him Governor of Kansas, but Buchanan decap- 
itated him on account of his adherence to the person and 
principles of Douglas. He early entered the war for the 
Union as Colonel of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania In- 
liintry, and fought through each grade to the position of 
major general, winning a bright reputation as a bold and* 
unflinching fighter. 

The most remarkable of Geary's exploits was the fa- 
mous " midnight battle of Wauhatchie," a sort of com- 
panion picture to Joe Hooker's " battle above the clouds.". 
It took place, too, at the foot of the mountain on which 
Hooker fought, and was, in a measure, preliminary to that 
struggle. It was fought for position, but a position of 
vital importance to both the rebels and Union forces, and 
consequently it was fought for with great desperation. 
The movement which brought it about was the first of 
those looking to the relief of the starving army at Chat- 
tanooga, and the purpose was to occupy a position which 
would cover a road by which provisions could be brought 
from the railroad terminus at Bridgeport. The occupa- 
tion of this position was absolutely necessary, and Geary 
was fully impressed with the importance of quickly seiz- 
ing and desperately holding on to it. By the success of 



DISTINGUISnED GENERALS, 319 

the movement the route to Bridgeport would be short- 
ened by many miles ; on its being thus shortened de- 
pended the provisioning of Chattanooga ; on this con- 
tingency depended the holding of that position, and on 
the retention of that position the safety of the army and 
its immense and valuable material. 

Geary seized the position with great alacrity, and much 
to the astonishment of the rebel Longstreet, who watched 
him from the summit of Lookout Mountain, From his 
position on " Signal Eock" — an overarching rock on the 
western side of the mountain — Longstreet had before his 
eyes the whole country as on a map, and when, in the dusk 
of evening, the camp-fires of Geary and Howard's troops 
located the positions which Hooker had seized and was 
fortifying, the importance of the success attained flashed 
upon Longstreet's mind in an instant, and he saw, in the 
seizure of Wauhatchie by Gearj^, the virtual relief of the 
besieged garrison of Chattanooga. He at once commu- 
nicated with Bragg, and on explaining the altered situa- 
tion to that officer, the latter at once directed Longstreet 
to attack Geary and Howard, and drive them back at all 
hazards. Longstreet returned to his position on " Signal 
Rock," and soon had his troops in readiness to descend 
from their position on the mountain, and assault Geary 
at Wauhatchie. From his position on " Signal Eock" 
Longstreet directed the assault by signals, and to this 
circumstance, singularly enough, he owed his defeat, 
Geary's force was totally inadequate to contend with the 
superior forces of the enemy. General Schurz, who was 
sent by Hooker to re-enforce him, never reached the po- 
sition, and but from the fact that Geary's signal-officers 



320 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

could read the rebel signals, he must have been over- 
whelmed and driven from the position. For some months 
previous to this battle our signal-officers had been in 
possession of the rebel signal code, and hence the flaming 
torches of Longstreet's signal-officers on " Signal Eock" 
revealed to Geary every order given to the rebel troops 
advancing against him. He was thus made aware of 
Longstreet's plan of attack, was enabled to anticipate and 
meet every movement of the rebels, and, thus forewarned, 
so to employ his small force by concentration in the crit- 
ical part of the field at the critical moment of attack 
as to repulse every assault which was made, either by 
^ounter-charges or rapid flank movements. After re- 
peatedly throwing themselves against Geary's force in 
vain, the rebels at length drew off discomfited. During 
the whole battle the flaming torch of Longstreet flashed 
orders that showed, after each repulse, his increased des- 
peration, and finally, much to Gear3''s gratification, he 
saw it signal the recall. All the while the figure of 
Longstreet on " Signal Eock," standing out boldly against 
the dark sky, was plainly visible, and, as Geary once re- 
marked, forcibly reminded him of a picture which he had 
once seen of Satan on the mountain pointing out the 
riches of the world to the Tempted, save that only the 
figure of the Tempter was visible. 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 821 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SOME PECULIARITIES OF OUR VETERANS. 

Every leader of our armies has had his story written 
— has carved it out with his sword, and impressed him- 
self on the time. 

But who shall write the history of our soldiers? 

Who shall dare attempt to tell the story or portray the 
characteristics of our veterans ? 

The nation, in its hour of distress, found leaders worthy 
to lead in any cause. No better marshals followed the 
great Napoleon. We shall leave to posterity the task of 
comparing our greatest general, Grant, with Napoleon ; 
but the present generation may be bold enough to defy 
any ardent admirer of the "Little Corporal" to find among 
his marshals the equal of Grant, who rather resembles in 
his characteristics, and, it is said, in his features too, the 
conqueror of Napoleon. We developed, indeed, counter- 
parts for all the great generals of modern warfare. The 
tenacious Thomas has the colossal proportions of mind 
and body of Kleber, the clearness in danger of Massena, 
and, though ponderous and unwieldy in his movements, 
is not more so than was Macdonald. Halleck, like Mar- 
mont, " understands the theory of war perfectly," and we 
might say of him, as Soult once said of Marmont, and in 
the same sarcastic sense, that "History will tell what he 

02 



322 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

did with his knowledge." His biographer's description 
of Mack, wherein he says, "Although able in the war 
office, he was wholly deficient in the qualities of a com- 
mander in the field," is a perfect description of Halleck, 
and adding the paragraph about Mack's popularity with 
the soldiers it applies equally well to McClellan, The 
" first strategist of Europe," Soult, was not one whit the 
superior in conception of Sherman, and not his equal in 
mobility and energy. Sherman has all the vigor and 
acuteness which characterized Frederick the Great, and 
is at heart his equal as a military despot. Hooker has 
all the ardor, and Howard all the enthusiasm of Gusta- 
vus, and were capable of as great things. Steedman has 
all the roughness, nonchalance, and impudence of Suwa- 
rofi". McPherson was a Moreau, alike young, indecisive, 
and unfortunate. True, we have developed many Grou- 
chys, who can not command above a few thousand men, 
and several Berthiers, who can not even calculate a day's 
march correctly ; but we have also given opportunity to 
one or two Keys in Sheridan and Eousseau, and several 
Murats in Hancock, Logan, and Gordon Granger. 

But not less worthy of the cause have been the men 
who fought in the ranks of our armies, and still more 
worthy to be compared to the best armies of Europe than 
are our generals to be paralleled with the great leaders of 
Europe. The superiors of our veterans never witnessed 
battle. They form, as combined in armies, a study not 
less enticing and interesting than that of the characters 
of their leaders. 

One of the many fallacies which have been dissipated 
by our late warlike experience is the idea which once 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 323 

prevailed that an uneducated man made as good, if not a 
better soldier than the educated man. When the late 
war began, it was an assertion made as positively as fre- 
quently. It was believed, particularly by the regular 
officers, that the persons of the former class more readily 
and completely adapted themselves to the discipline of 
the camps — more readily became the pliant and obedient 
tools that regular soldiers are too often made. It is to the 
veteran volunteers of the late war for the Union that we 
are indebted for the explosion of this fallacy. The proofs 
of its falsity are not less interesting than conclusive. 

Every reader 'familiar with the history of modern war- 
fare in Europe must have noticed, in watching the events 
of the late rebellion in this country, the very great differ- 
ence between the practice of war as carried on in Europe 
and by ourselves. The rules have been the same ; the 
theory of war is too firmly and philosophically establish- 
ed to be changed. It can not be said that we originated 
a single new rule, but our application of those long estab- 
lished has been unlike any other practice known to his- 
tory. The extent of the field of operations, the peculiar 
configuration of the country, and the extended line of 
coast and inland frontier which each party to the contest 
had to guard, conspired to this end, and caused to be orig- 
inated such peculiarities of warfare as long and arduous 
raids by entire armies, flank marches of an extent and 
boldness never before conceived, the construction of 
many leagues of fortified lines, and the execution of stra- 
tegic marches of great originality and brilliancy, while 
there have been effected at the same time, owing to 
changes and improvements in the arms, several innova- 



824 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

tions in minor tactics not less curious than important. 
The contending parties fought dozens of battles, each of 
which would have been decisive of a war between any 
two of the great powers of Europe. There the limits of 
the field of operations are restricted by the presence of 
armed neutral powers on each frontier. Here the line 
of frontier extended across a whole continent. No neces- 
sities exist there, as here, for large numbers of large ar- 
mies. The most important and extensive modern Euro- 
pean wars witnessed the prosecution of only one import- 
ant operation at a time, while in this country we have 
carried on several campaigns simultaneously, and fought 
pitched battles whose tactical as well as strategic success 
depended on the result of operations five hundred miles 
distant. Bragg won the victory of Chickamauga only by 
the aid of re-enforcements sent him from Richmond ; the 
besieged army of Rosecrans at Chattanooga was saved 
from dispersion only by the timely re-enforcements sent 
him, under Hooker, from Washington ; while Schofield, 
with twenty thousand men, after fighting at Nashville, 
Tennessee, in the middle of winter, was operating in 
North Carolina, opening communications with Sherman, 
a fortnight subsequently. In Europe, concentration is 
forced on each party by the configuration and confined 
area of the seat of war. In this country the opposite 
effect has naturally been the result of the opposite cir- 
cumstances, and the finest display of generalship which 
we have had was shown by Grant in the consummate 
skill with which, in the latter year of the war, he concen- 
trated our two greatest armies, and employed his cavalry 
against the vital point of the rebellion, while with the 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 325 

fractional organizations lie kept the enemy employed in 
the far West. Generally speaking, any two European 
powers at war are represented each by a single army, 
which are brought together upon a field of battle to de- 
cide at a blow the question in dispute, and thus the Euro- 
pean generals are afibrded better chances for the display 
of tactical abilities. In Europe, cavalry plays an import- 
ant part on every battle-field, while in this country its as- 
sistance has seldom been asked in actual battle, though a 
no less effective application has been made of it in de- 
stroying communications. Except in the battle of Gen- 
eral Sheridan, and in some instances where accident has 
brought cavalry into battle, our troo|)ers were never le- 
gitimately employed. The art of marching as practiced 
in Europe was also varied here, and the European system 
of supplying an army is very different from our own. 
Their lines of march are decided by the necessities for 
providing cantonments in the numerous villages of the 
country, while on this continent marches are retarded, 
if not controlled, by the necessity of carrying tents for 
camps. The parallel which is here merely outlined 
might be pursued by one better fitted for the task to a 
highly suggestive and interesting conclusion. 

In the same sense, and in still better defined contrast, 
the armies of America and of Europe have differed in 
their personnel. The armies of the principal powers of 
Europe are composed of men forced to arms by necessity 
in time of peace, and conscriptions in time of war ; not, 
like the people of our own country, volunteering when 
the crisis demanded, with a clear sense of the danger be- 
fore them, and for the stern purpose of vindicating the 



326 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

flag, and forcing obedience to the laws of the country. 
The European soldiers are conscripted for life, become 
confirmed in the habits of the camp, and are subjected to 
a system of discipline which tends to the ultimate pur- 
pose of rendering them mere pliant tools in the hands of 
a leader; while those of the United States, separated from 
the outer world only by the lax discipline necessary to 
the government of a camp, are open to every influence 
that books, that letters, and, to a certain extent, that so- 
ciety can lend. The highest aim of the European sys- 
tem is to sink individuality, and to teach the recruit that 
he is but the fraction of a great machine, to the proper 
working of which his perfectness in drill and discipline 
is absolutely necessarj'-. In the United States volunteer 
army this same system was only partially enforced, and 
individuality was lost only on the battle-field, and then 
only so far as was necessary to morale did the man sink 
into the soldier. The private who in camp disagreed 
and disputed with his captain on questions of politics or 
science was not necessarily disobedient and demoralized 
on the battle-field. ISTo late opportunity for a compari- 
son between the prowess of our own and any European 
army has been presented, though the reader will have 
very little difficulty in convincing himself that the dis- 
cipline of our troops in the South was better than that 
of the English in the Crimea or the French in Italy ; 
while the " outrages of the Korthern soldiers," at which 
England murmured in her partiality for the rebels, were 
not certainly as horrible as those committed by her own 
troops in India. 

This same diiference was visible in theji)erso???2e/of our 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 827 

own and the rebel armies, and it resulted from the same 
cause, and that cause was education. The Union army 
was superior in prowess to that of the South because su- 
perior in discipline, and it was superior in discipline be- 
cause superior in education. The Union army was re- 
cruited from a people confirmed in habits of industry, 
and inured to hard and severe manual and mental labor. 
That of the rebels was recruited from among men reared 
in the comparative idleness of agricultural life, and not 
habituated to severe toil, or conscripted from that hardier 
class of "poor whites" whose spirits had been broken by 
long existence in a state of ignorance and of slavery not 
less abject because indirectly enforced and unsuspectedly 
endured. Neither fraction of the rebel army, as a class, 
was the equal either in refinement, education, or habits 
of the men of the North, nor were both combined in an 
army organization equal in discipline, or the courage and 
effectiveness which results from it, to that which sprang 
to the nation's aid in 1861. Although the camp morali- 
ty of both armies might have been better, there can be 
no doubt in any unprejudiced mind that the moral senti- 
ment of the soldiers of the North was much more refined 
and correct than that of the organized forces of the South. 
Not only was their discipline better, not only were they 
under superior control in battle and in camp, but when, 
at times, relieved of the restrictions which, are thrown 
around camps, their thoughts naturally turned less to dis- 
sipation and excesses than those of the Southern soldiers. 
The military despotism at the South was much more se- 
verely enforced by the rebel armies than it was by our 
own, though looked upon as that of an enemy. The ex- 



328 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

cesses whicli at times existed in both armies were of 
Southern parentage. Sherman's " bummers" were legiti- 
mate descendants of Morgan's raiders and Stuart's cav- 
alry, and at no time during the period in which they 
were "let loose" in Georgia and South Carolina could 
they excel Wheeler's cavalry in the art of plundering 
and destroying. The destruction of Atlanta and Colum- 
bia by our army under Sherman occurred nearly two 
years after the burning of Chambersburg by the rebels 
under Ewell. 

The superiority of our veterans over those of the rebel 
armies was evinced not only in the grand result of the 
war, but in all its details. Their superior endurance was 
acknowledged by their enemies on dozens of fields, and 
their superior discipline was generally confessed. North- 
ern men are by nature no braver than Southern men, 
and the superiority of the Northern army was not the 
result of natural gifts, but of cultivation. The Northern 
people are the superiors of the Southern classes, first, in 
education, and, secondly, in habits and physique. Their 
endurance was the result of the latter advantage ; their 
superiority in discipline and morale was naturally the 
consequence of the former. Though something of the 
spirit, endurance, patience, and thorough discipline of 
our armies was to be attributed to the consciousness of 
the justice of the cause for which they fought, the gen- 
eral superiority of our veterans over the rebel soldiers 
was, without dispute, the result of the superior general 
education received by the Northern masses. 

And, par parenthesis^ while on this subject of educa- 
tion, let me stop to say, even though I break the conti- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 329 

nuitj of the argument, that I think, if there is a single 
duty which the North, as the conqueror, owes to the 
South as the conquered, it is the granting to her people 
— ay, even enforcing upon them, the great educational ad- 
vantages with which the North is so bountifully blessed. 
The first plank in the reconstruction platform of the jyeo- 
ple — not the mere politicians, for so much virtue can not 
be expected of them — should provide for the education 
of the Southern masses, white as well as black. All the 
reconstruction schemes which have been advanced are 
calculated for speedy operation, and political power, not 
the social improvement and prosperity of the people, is 
aimed at. Universal suffrage, as a remedy, is chimerical, 
and one which can not enter into the practical solution 
of the question, Negro suffrage is an experiment as dan- 
gerous to the country as it can possibly be advantageous 
to the negro. I would gladly see the present generation 
of adult negroes allowed by the states to vote in all local 
elections, for his vote is really all the protection he has 
against the injustice of an elective judiciary, each mem- 
ber of which naturally enough decides in all suits against 
the negro without a vote, to curry favor and popular- 
ity with the white man with a vote. But in the event 
of a general election for presidency, the giving of the 
right of suffrage to the negroes would be practically 
equivalent to throwing the power of the government 
again into the hands of the three hundred thousand slave- 
holders who formerly ruled the country, and who, still 
remaining the capitalists of the South, through the influ- 
ence of their capital would rule the vote of the negroes 
and laborers. A generation for reconstruction is short 



330 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

enough, and the only true means for the permanent re- 
construction of the people is through education. 

The great strength of the rebellion lay in the ignorance 
of the Southern masses. The " poor whites" of the South 
are among the most ignorant people on the face of God's 
earth. The slaveholders purposely kept them in igno- 
rance — kept them from books, and schools, and news- 
papers more carefully, more persistently than they did 
their slaves. They surrounded their section and their 
people with a Chinese wall of prejudice, against which 
all arrays of fact, argument, appeal, threw themselves in 
vain. Through this ignorance, the " poor whites" of the 
South were ruled even more despotically than the slaves ; 
and through this ignorance the slaveholders of the South 
were enabled to commit the greatest of wrongs against hu- 
manity. They engendered prejudices between the " poor 
whites" and the negroes, never losing an opportunity of 
fostering the hatred and enmity which they were soon 
enabled to create. A perfect system prevailed all over 
the South, and the " poor whites" were placed in every 
position, socially, politically, and otherwise, in which they 
could be made offensive to the slaves. The harsh over- 
seer was always a " poor white," and, if possible, he was 
selected from among the " Yankee" emigrants ; the sher- 
iff who tied the slave to the whipping-post, and the con- 
stable who laid on the lash, were always elected from the 
"poor whites;" and the men who, with bloodhounds, 
hunted the runaway negro through marsh and wood, were 
hired from among the " poor white" neighbors. In their 
ignorance, these two factions of the same laboring class of 
the South were made to believe that their interests were 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 331 

antagonistic instead of identical, and that the slaveholders 
were the mutual enemies of each. Andrew Johnson, in la- 
boring for years in Tennessee to create a feeling of antag- 
onism between the " poor whites" and the rich slavehold- 
ers, was touching at one root of the evil, but not the root. 
The war has thrown open the field to the laborers of the 
North, and if the people of the country seek to restore 
harmony, to obliterate all sectional feelings, to make the 
union of the States really one and indivisible, they must 
aid in the work of educating the Southern people, black 
and white, into understanding their former condition and 
false positions toward each other. A few good men, like 
General AVager Swayne (who understands this great 
question thoroughly, who is a charming enthusiast on 
the subject, and who ought to be at the head of an Edu- 
cational Bureau instead of a subordinate in the Freed- 
men's Bureau), and General Davis Tillson, and one or 
two others, are doing much good by encouraging educa- 
tion among the negroes. But the sympathy of the coun- 
try should not be entirely absorbed by the blacks. There 
are four millions of " poor whites" in the South who need 
education fully as much as do the negroes, and, deceived, 
betrayed, and ruined by their leaders, they deserve sym- 
pathy and aid fully as much. One inalienable right 
which should not be denied even to traitors — and if there 
had been education at the South there would have been 
no treason — is the right to educate himself; and since 
the Constitution provides that there shall be no attainder 
of blood for treason, the North owes it to the rising gen- 
eration of these deceived people to educate them into a 
proper appreciation of the liberty which our veterans 



332 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

have won for tliem in defeating and conquering their 
fathers. Oh, how grand and sublime would appear the 
record in history that the Great Eepublic, after putting- 
down the most monstrous rebellion the world ever saw, 
imposed upon the conquered only the tax for their own 
education, and erected no prisons save those of the school- 
house and the church ! 

In returning to the subject of the effect of education on 
armies^ I have even a better illustration of the idea I have 
advanced than those already given. When the war first 
broke out, it will be remembered that the organization 
of the troops, brigades, and even divisions were formed 
of regiments coming from a single state, and we were 
thus rapidly falling into an error which, had it not been 
wisely corrected, would have left us, at the close of the 
war, with an army distracted by the same contemptible 
jealousies, resulting from state or sectional pride, which 
were among the minor causes of the rebellion. But, 
though that error was corrected by the commingling of 
regiments from different states in the same brigade or- 
ganization, we did commit the error of forming two grand 
armies, each composed of troops exclusively from the 
Eastern and Western States. The Array of the Potomac 
was the representative army of the Northeastern States, 
being composed almost exclusively of Eastern men. The 
Army of the Tennessee Was composed- of men from the 
West, and, as it existed under General Grant, was prop- 
erly the representative army of the West. The same 
army was dovetailed with that of the Cumberland, and 
placed under General Sherman, and at the time of its dis- 
solution was not so clearly a representative army, Sher- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. ^ 333 

man having impressed his own manner on his men, and 
made them a peculiar and not exactly proper type of the 
Western soldier. The contrast between the men of these 
two armies of the East and West, in jyliysiqiie^ habits, dis- 
cipline, and morale, was so apparent that it is difficult to 
conceive that they did not belong to different nationalities. 
Any comparison which would assert the superiority of 
either army in endurance, courage, or fighting qualities 
would be invidious and untrue, for the men of both sec- 
tions fought with equal effect and won equal honor ; but it 
is undeniable that the Potomac Army was by far the best 
disciplined army we ever had in the field. The Potomac 
Army rivaled the regulars in evolutions, while Sherman's 
Western boys, with their careless, free, easy gait, would 
outmarch a battalion of the hardiest of the old regulars. 
The Potomac men did not march as well as Sherman's 
troops; they had less of the elastic spring of Western men, 
were perhaps too exact, and disposed to be too stiff and 
prim, but they marched with a precision equal to the reg- 
ulars of any army. McClellan taught the Potomac Army 
the pure discipline of the old regulars, and it would have 
required but little more of such teaching to make them 
all that is expected of such troops ; but Sherman, forcible 
a tutor as he is, could never hope to transform them 
into " bummers." General McClellan would have failed, 
as General Buell did, in making regulars of the Western 
volunteers ; and I very much doubt if any of the old army 
ofiicers who remained constantly in the service, and who 
had become confirmed in the ideas of the Academy, could 
have succeeded in making effectives of the Western men 
in the short time that Grant and Sherman did. The sue- 



33-i » PEESONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF 

cess of Grant appears to have been much influenced by 
his absorption, during his long residence in the West, of 
the elements of the Western character, and the toning 
down of the West Point precision in his education. The 
same may be said of Sherman. No army of the country 
was under better control, or committed fewer excesses, 
than the Army of the Bast, as the Potomac force should 
have properly been called. No army committed so many 
useless excesses as did that of General Sherman, and in 
none was the discipline so lax, yet no army could be 
more implicitly trusted in the emergencies of battle than 
Sherman's Army of the West. The Potomac Army wore 
kid gloves off duty, and had the air of an exquisite on 
parade, but this exquisite was a proficient in the warlike 
arts, was always ready to fight, and did not hesitate to 
accept battle with courage and confidence equal to that 
of its rougher ally of the West. The Army of the West 
cared nothing for appearances, wore a slouched hat and 
a loose blouse, and had the air of careless ease and indif- 
ference which we often see in the pioneer. The Western 
veteran had more care for his rifle than his uniform, paid 
more attention to his cartridge-box than his carriage, and 
heartily despised drill and parade. The Western troops 
lacked culture, they had less respect for "the proprie- 
ties" than the Eastern troops, and the relations of ofiicer 
and man were maintained by them with less of the strict- 
ness that is due to proper discipline than among Eastern 
troops. The Eastern men were very particular regard- 
ing their dress, and displayed their badges and medals 
with commendable pride. They devoted many hours to 
the adornment of their camps, and nothing could have 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 335 

been more beautiful and picturesque tban many of their 
old camps in the Southern pine country. The decora- 
tions were generally made with the evergreens which 
abound in the South, but often mechanical contrivances 
operated by the wind produced picturesque and curious 
effects. They indulged in gymnastic and ball exercises to 
a great extent, and were very fond of horse-racing and 
the higher order of games at cards. The amusements of 
the Western troops were of a ruder character. Cock- 
fighting and .card-playing were the chief recreations. 
Every man was' armed with a pack of cards, and each 
company boasted a fighting-cock, while every brigade had 
its fast horse. The "Western soldier had a clearer appre- 
ciation of the practical than the picturesque, and their 
camps were seldom or never decorated as were those of 
the Eastern men. Practice with the pistol was a fre- 
quent amusement in the Western Army. Cats and dogs 
seemed to be necessaries of camp life. "Company" and 
" head-quarter" cows were a common article of pets, and 
the evidences of care, kindness, and affection shown for 
them by their self-constituted proprietors were often very 
amusing. In the Western Army fighting-cocks were 
favorite pets, and they were almost as numerous as the 
men themselves. During the campaign in the Carolinas 
General Sherman gave one of his attendants permission 
to occupy a wagon with his spoils, chiefly consisting of 
fighting chickens. He was very much astonished to find, 
in a few days, that the one wagon had increased to a 
dozen, other followers having also employed a wagon or 
two to carry their spoils. Thg general immediately or- 
dered them to be burned, and executed the order with a 



336 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

remorseless hand until he came to the wagon he had 
originally permitted. He was about to burn this too, as 
it had been the bad example which was plead in excuse 
for the others, when he was appealed to to spare that, as 
" it contained all the head-quarter fighting-cocks." Sher- 
man occasionally enjoyed the sport himself, and the ap- 
peal saved the wagon and chickens. Card-playing was 
common among the veterans from both the East and 
West, but the style of games played varied according to 
the education of the men. Among the Eastern troops, 
" Whist" and "Euchre" were the favorite games; among 
the Western men, " Poker" and "Seven up," invariably 
for money, were popular. Gambling was the great vice 
of the veterans, as jealousy was the great crime of their 
generals. Immediately after the appearance of the pay- 
master, the troops of both armies invariably indulged in 
cards as persistently and as regularly as the generals did 
in bickering after a battle. 

Here the contrast ends and the comparison begins. 
The Eastern and Western men had many peculiarities in 
common, and the cause of the existing differences, educa- 
tion, produced the similarities. The fighting qualities 
of each were the same. Both armies went into battle 
with the same resolute air of men of business, and, under 
the same leaders, each displayed equal endurance. Grrant 
was instrumental in showing the equality existing in this 
respect, and at the same time he smothered a painful 
feeling which at one time existed in the West, based on 
the ill success of the Potomac Army under former leaders, 
and finding expression in the idea that the Eastern troops 
did not fiofht as well as the Western men. This feelino- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 837 

at one time threatened to become a serious sectional diffi- 
culty, when General Grant took immediate control over 
the Potomac Army, and infused his spirit of persistence 
into it. The discipline of the Potomac Army men amid 
the continually recurring disasters of the first three years 
of the war, their firmness under defeat or questionable 
success, was always admirable, and it only required the 
tutorship of Grant to prove their endurance, and make 
them the admiration of the whole country. That army 
always confronted the best of the rebel armies at the key- 
point of the field. It fought more battles than any other 
two armies in the field. Grant added the only lesson it 
needed to make its education perfect, and taught it, as 
he had taught the Army of the Tennessee, how to dis- 
play its endurance by showing it how to fight its battles 
through. 

The same cause, education, which produces this mark- 
ed distinction, may also be observed as tracing a difier- 
ence between either of these classes in our army and a 
third class — a mere fraction, however — representing the 
Southern element. In the Union army there have been 
from the first a number of Southern Unionists, generally 
mountaineers and refugees from the East Tennessee re- 
gions, who, according to all statistics and observation, 
were uneducated and ignorant, and whose lax discipline 
has more than once caused slurs to be cast upon the 
army. In camp they were unclean, on the march they 
were great stragglers, and in battle untrustworthy and 
ineffective. Only the very strict discipline of one or two 
regular officers assigned to their command redeemed the 
character of a few of these regiments from this general 

P 



338 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

reputation. The men of this class were not superior to 
the rebel soldiers in any respect. 

It is not to be inferred, from any argument used to 
show that an educated man makes a better soldier than 
an uneducated one, that discipline was neither demand- 
ed nor enforced in our army of educated soldiers. The 
thorough discipline of the Union army made it invinci- 
ble. Its superiority to that of the rebels was the result 
only of the higher discipline which they were capable, 
through education, of receiving, and which was thorough- 
ly enforced. From the very moment that the Bull Eun 
defeat violently dissipated the fallacies which we enter- 
tained of a brief and bloodless struggle, and taught the 
country that a long and terrible war was before it, the 
army, with a dogged perseverance of which our mercu- 
rial people did not believe themselves capable, went di- 
rectly to work to discipline itself. The ineffectives were 
rooted out by the surgeons, and sent home or to the hos- 
pital. Regiments were reduced in numbers, but in- 
creased in efl&ciency. What was lost in numerical 
strength was more than gained in the effectiveness which 
resulted from the stricter discipline which was instituted. 
Incompetent officers of the line were forced to give place 
to their betters. This soon extended to higher ranks, 
and bad generals were supplanted by better. There was 
little system in our first choice of generals. We blun- 
dered on until the right man was found at last, and 
through him the proper subordinates were chosen. At 
first the blunders were serious, and men with false ideas 
of the crisis were thrust forward by circumstances, to be 
discovered at fearful cost and after long delay. With 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 339 

portions of the army discipline was allowed to degener- 
ate into mere drill, and devotion to the cause became di- 
vided with devotion to a popular leader ; while in other 
parts of the country the forces, though thoroughly drill- 
ed, felt no admiration or love for their leader, or were 
never taught that confidence in their commanders which 
is at the root of all discipline. It was the fault of the 
Western armies that too little attention was paid to the 
moral sentiments of the men, and that in the Eastern 
Army the thoroughly-taught sentiment of devotion to the 
cause was permitted to partially degenerate into love of 
the leader. Circumstances, however, soon corrected these 
great evils, and through much tribulation, numerous dis- 
heartenings, and many defeats, the men slowly became 
veterans. 

A thorough system of discipline was necessary not 
only to the organization and morale, but to the courage 
of our army, as it is of any large body of men. Men in 
battle are not individually courageous. Courage amid 
the horrors and under the conflicting emotions of the 
battle-field is as much derived from discipline as from 
nature. The fact that this war affords more numerous 
instances of personal heroism displayed in battle than 
any other which can be recalled, does not disprove the 
rule. On the contrary, it corroborates the assertion ; for 
if we closely inquire into the characters of those who 
have distinguished themselves by heroic deeds and indi- 
vidual prowess, we shall find that they have invariably 
been men confirmed in steady habits, and veterans of 
thorough discipline. Courage is derived from the elec- 
tric touch of shoulder to shoulder of men in the line. 



340 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

As long as the current is perfect, extending througli the 
line and concentrating in the person of the commander, 
whose mind directs all, and in whom all have perfect con- 
fidence, the line can not be defeated. It may be driven, 
may be broken, but the men are invincible. Break the 
current, and at once the morale^ the discipline, and the 
courage break with it, and men that were a :moment be- 
fore invincible fly to the rear, not overcome by fright 
and terror, but with the dogged, stubborn, and gruff man- 
ner of disheartened men. A broken column in disorder- 
ed flight is one of the most wonderful studies which can 
be conceived. The actuality is the very reverse of what 
the imagination would conceive. "Panic-stricken men," 
who will " fly" fifteen and twenty miles from a battle- 
field, proceed to execute that manoeuvre in a manner as 
systematic as if they had been taught it. They "fly" — 
they run from the field — only until beyond the imme- 
diate reach of stray bullets. The flight is disordered. 
The men scatter for safety apparently with the same in- 
stinct that actuates quails to separate in rising from a 
field before the hunter. When beyond the reach of the 
enemy's guns, they are so scattered that it is almost im- 
possible to rally them as they were formerly organized, 
and it is next to impossible to induce a demoralized man 
to fight with any other than his own regiment. When 
they are beyond the reach of the enemy's guns they gen- 
erally halt, look back, and examine into matters. They 
will look about them, inquire for their regiments, talk of 
the danger from which they have escaped, and in a per- 
fectly intelligible manner, until a stray bullet falling about 
them gives assurance that the enemy is advancing, when, 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 341 

without a word, they resume their retreat for a few hun- 
dred yards farther, deaf alike to the threats and entreaties 
of any officer who does not happen to be their immediate 
commander. Yet these men who are thus broken in one 
battle will fight with desperate courage in the next, and, 
retaining their organization, go through the engagement 
with great credit. Often circumstances, such as the for- 
mer location of a camp near the battle-field, jDrevious po- 
sitions in the reserve line, the existence of rifle-pits, and 
various other localities which serve as a rallying-point, 
enable broken troops to re-form and again go into action. 
Men often rally on the part of an intrenched line which 
they formerly held; and one of the best uses to which 
rifle-pits have ever been put by offensive armies is that 
of forming a rallying-line when attacking troops fail or 
are broken. It is a use known only to the practice, and 
is not recognized by the theory of war. 

Men under thorough discipline lose in a great measure 
their individuality. A regiment becomes as a single man, 
moved by a single impulse. The men individually are 
but fractions, each being able to perform their part of the 
task only by the aid of the others. These fractions are 
curious beings under fire. They perform deeds which it 
would be morally impossible for an individual without 
similar surroundings to accomplish. Thousands of our 
veterans will tell you that in going into battle they have 
never imagined nor felt that they were going to be shot ; 
they have never felt as if in danger themselves, but that 
their fears are for the comrades with whom they march 
shoulder to shoulder. They become painfully indifferent 
in regard to themselves, and appear to have none of those 



342 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

apprehensions witli whicli they were so terrified "when 
they were raw recruits. They swear as usual, with per- 
haps a little more emphasis, laugh at the comic features 
which prevail under all circumstances of battle, talk free- 
ly and sensibly, and do not betray any more, nor as much 
excitement as every one has witnessed in crowds at polit- 
ical and other gatherings. I have seen men in the "sec- 
ond line" — the reserves — playing cards while the first 
were receiving a charge, and the spent shots were drop- 
ping in their midst. While the hardest fighting was go- 
ing on at Chattanooga, November 25th, I860, 1 saw three 
soldiers sitting near the guns of Callender's battery en- 
gaged, while under fire, in making entries in their diaries. 
This is a sight seen only in the ranks of the United States 
armies. During the battle of Murfreesborough, Tennes- 
see, the rebels, in making a charge upon General Neg- 
ley's division, frightened from the fields and woods a 
large number of rabbits, quails, and wild turkeys, driving 
them toward the Union lines. The birds appeared too 
frightened to fly, and, following the example of the rab- 
bits, hopped and jumped over the field, escaping from the 
advancing rebels. They fled, of course, toward the rear, 
passing through and over our front line, and approached 
the reserve troops, who, without any reference to the fact 
that the rebel balls were now falling like great drops of 
rain among them, laid down their guns and went to cap- 
turing wild fowls. While still engaged in this employ-' 
ment, laughable even under the serious circumstances, 
the first line of our troops was broken, and the rebel sol- 
diers charged upon the second. The veteran soldiers 
abandoned the chase of the wild-fowl, and, falling hastily 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 843 

into line, thrice repulsed tlie advancing enemy. One of 
the men who had captured a wild turkey carried it to 
Lieutenant Kennedy, of General Negley's staff, and sold 
it to him. Kennedy tied the bird to his saddle, intend- 
ing to have it for supper that night, but was surprised to 
find that a stray bullet had cut the strings by which the 
turkey had been suspended, and robbed him of a meal. 

No greater contrast can be conceived than the differ- 
ence in the effect produced on soldiers when delivering 
and receiving an assault. In receiving an attack they 
are never quiet, 'although cool, composed, and self-pos- 
sessed. Put them behind breast-works to receive an as- 
sault, and the preparations of the enemy for the attack 
creates among those awaiting it an anxiety which devel- 
ops into mental excitement, which finds vent in words, 
noisy disputes, etc. Going to the assault, the same men 
are different beings. The silence which prevails becomes 
painful. A command given at one end of the line can 
be distinctly heard at the other. The men become seri- 
ous, and are disposed to be gruff. They converse but 
little, and then in under- tones. They begin to under- 
stand what is to be done, that they are to do it, and, 
without for a moment fearing to test the questions of de- 
feat or victory, they carefully weigh in their own minds 
the chances, not of life, but of success. 

The most remarkable illustration of this peculiarity of 
veteran troops which I can recall occurred during Sher- 
man's battle at Chattanooga. Leaving a fortified line, 
the Union troops of Colonel Loomis and Generals Ma- 
thias. Corse, and Eaum were required to cross a small 
valley and assault a rebel fort located on a steep hill, 



34-i PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

three hundred feet high, and of very rugged ascent. 
When the troops selected moved out in the line of re- 
serves and marched down into the valley, the rebels, 
having full view of the column, grew excited and noisy. 
The orders of their ofl&cers were shouted, and were plain- 
ly heard in our lines, and, though it was impossible for 
the assaulting column to prepare for its work under an 
hour's time, the rebels evinced every indication of excite- 
ment, rushing hither and thither, and growing noisier 
every moment. The Union troops, on the contrary, pre- 
pared for the work slowly and quietly, with an unusually 
serious and composed air. They glanced up ever and 
anon at the steep hill before them, and many doubtless 
compared the mountain to the Walnut Hills of Vicks- 
burg, where they met their first repulse. The assault 
was made in as serious a manner as the preparations. 
There was no breath wasted in loud cries. The men 
twice assaulted with desperate courage, were badly re- 
pulsed by a flanking force, and driven in confusion across 
the valley to their line of reserves, but, as they came back, 
passing through General Sherman's field-quarters, they 
looked as defiantly as ever, admitting no more than "that 
they had failed this time." There was no panic, no de- 
spair. They saw they had failed from sheer inability, 
not a want of effort or disposition to accomplish their 
task. They retreated, but not rushing wildly far to the 
rear. The powerful aided the weak, the strong bore off 
the wounded, and each came back as he had advanced, 
cool, composed, and serious. 

The veteran when in camp had no curiosity. His in- 
difference to matters going on around him was positively 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS. 345 

appalling to a stranger or a raw recruit. They would 
often be in camp for a month without knowing or caring 
what regiment was encamped next to them. A raw re- 
cruit of two months' standing was better authority on all 
on dits of camp, the location of other regiments, the names 
of their officers, and similar general information, than a 
veteran of three years' standing. The veteran laughed 
at the knowledge of the raw recruit, wondered where the 
utility of that information was, boasted of superior prac- 
tical knowledge, and good-naturedly taught the raw re- 
cruit the more useful lessons of how to march easily, 
sleep well, provide himself with little luxuries, and how 
to take care of himself generally. The veteran had curi- 
ous modes of making himself comfortable, which the raw 
recruit learned only from practice. Camp the veteran in 
a forest over night, and he would sleep under his shelter- 
tent raised high and made commodious, and on a soft 
bed of dry leaves. Encamp him for a month in the same 
forest, and he would live in a log house, sleep on good 
clean straw, dine off a wooden table, drink from glass- 
ware made from the empty ale or porter bottles from the 
sutler's tent, comb his whiskers before a framed looking- 
glass on a pine-board mantle-shelf, and look with the air 
of a millionaire through a foot and a half square window- 
frame on the camped world around him. The rebels 
used to call our men, when working on forts, rifle-pits, 
etc., " beavers in blue." The veteran was a regular beav- 
er when building his house. He would buy, beg, or steal 
from the quarter-master (a species of theft recognized by 
the camp code of morals as entirely justifiable) the only 
tool he needed, an axe. With this he would cut, hew, 

P2 



846 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 

dig, drive — any thing you like, in fact. With his axe 
he would cut the logs for his cabin — miniature logs, two 
inches in diameter — trim them to the proper length, and 
drive the necessary piles. With his axe he would cut 
the brushwood or the evergreen, and thatch his roof. 
With his axe he would dig a mud-hole in which to make 
his plaster for filling the crevices of the logs, and thus 
shut out the cold. Doors, chimneys, benches, chairs, ta- 
bles, all the furniture of his commodious house, he would 
make with the same instrument. When all was finished, 
he would sit comfortably down on his cot and laugh at 
the superficial knowledge of the raw recruit who had 
been shivering in his shelter-tent, looking on in amaze- 
ment at the magical labors of the "beavers in blue." 

If Napoleon could revisit the " glimpses of the moon," 
he would doubtless laugh — perhaps his nephew really 
does laugh at the idea of our calling the victors of this 
short-lived rebellion " veterans" — or with that sternness 
with which he once reproved his marine secretary, Tru- 
get, for propagating " the dangerous oj^inion that a sol- 
dier could be trained to all his duties in six months," 
the first Napoleon would ask us, with a look of imperial 
scorn, to show him in our boasted army a cor2')s like the 
eighteen thousand troops of the French Monarchy that 
under his discipline became the Old Guard, which "died, 
but never surrendered." Julius Caesar would doubtless 
smile at our presumption, and point to the old veteran 
legions of his armies with which he overran Europe, and 
into which no recruit was admitted until after eight years' 
service and discipline in other ranks, and ask us for vet- 
erans like his. Our soldiers were not, perhaps, the vet- 



DISTINGUISHED GENERALS, 847 

erans for Napoleon or Cassar, nor for such purpose as 
those of Napoleon or Csesar, but they were such veterans 
as perished with Leonidas at Thermopylae, and won vic- 
tory in following Arnold Yon Wilkenried in the moun- 
tain passes of Switzerland. Nothing can be sublimer 
than the patient heroism displayed by the veterans of 
the " War for the Union ;" and when Time shall have 
hallowed, as it will, the yet familiar scenes of that strug- 
gle, tinting the story with a hue of romance, rounding 
the irregularities in the characters of the leaders, and 
toning down the rude points in the characters of the 
men, forgetting their excesses and remembering only 
their devotion and daring, the heroes and veterans who 
fought for the unity of the land will loom up as sacred 
in our eyes as are those who, in ages past, fought for its 
independence and liberty. 



INDEX. 



Anderson, Gen. Patton, page 232. 
Anderson, Gen. Robert, 31, 54. 
Ashley, James D., 282, 283. 
Avery, Capt. Wm. L., 154. 

Baird, Gen. Absalom, 83, 291. 
Ballard, A. J., 216, 217. 
Ballard, Bland, 216, 217. 
Banks, Gen. N. P., 253. 
Beauregard, Gen. P. G. T., 144. 
Benham, Gen. Henry W., 246. 
Bennett, James Gordon, 117. 
Blair, Gen. Frank, 27, 198. 
Blunt, Gen. James G., 141, 142. 
Boggs, Gen.W. R., 138. 
Bowen, Gen. John S., 138. 
Boyle, Gen. J. T., 217. 
Bragg, Gen. Braxton, 64, 65, 69, 

110, 111, 112, 145, 148, 151, 154, 

248, 255, 256, 257, 266, 285, 290, 

291, 293, 319,324. 
Bramlette, Gov. Thos. E., 217. 
Brannin, Gen. John M., 266, 289. 
Breckenridge, Gen. John C, 257, 

290. 
Brough, Gov. John, 262. 
Brown, Capt. Jacob, 63. 
Brownlow, Col. James, 73. 
Brownlow, Gov. William G., 73. 
Bruce, Col. Saunders D., 212, 213. 
Bryant, William C, 300. 
Buchanan, James, 283, 284, 318. 
Buckner, Gen. Simon B., 51, 208, 

209, 210, 211, 212, 219, 225, 226, 

232, 291. 
Buell, Gen. Don Carlos, 83, 34, 43, 

62, 65, 102, 147, 229, 230, 234, 

245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 252, 

253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 294, 

333. 



Bull, Mayor, 28. 
Burnett, Alfred, 73, 74. 
Burnham, Lieut. Howard, 82. 
Burnham, Cyrus H., 227. 
Burnside, Gen. A. E., 96, 110, 111, 

113, 155, 184, 185. 
Butler, Gen. Benj.F., 49. 

Cadwallader, Gen. George, 182. 

Callender, Lieut. F. D., 179. 

Cameron, Simon, 32, 214, 215, 216. 

Canby, Gen. E. R. S., 255. 

Canty, Gen., 309. 

Chalmers, Gen. James H., 144, 145. 

Chamberlain, Gen. B. F., 138. 

Chambliss, Gen. John R., 138. 

Chase, Salmon P., 213, 214, 215, 
216. 

Cheatham, Gen. Benj.F., 232. 

Clanton, Gen. James H., 235. 

Clay, Capt. Henry, Jr., 219. 

Clay, Capt. Thomas, 219. 

Clifford, John H., 201. 

Cluseret, Gen., 178. 

Cook, Isaac, 283, 284. 

Corse, Gen., 343. 

Corwin, Col. Richard, 223. 

Crittenden, Gen. George B., 82. 

Crittenden, Gen. Thomas L., 64, 67, 
68, 79, 148, 248, 249, 263, 265, 
266, 267, 289, 292, 295, 296. 

Crufts, Gen. Charles, 173. 

Curtis, Gen. Samuel B., 140. 

Dana, Charles A., 178, 263, 264, 

267. 
Davis, Jefferson, 97, 138, 201, 219, 

221, 222, 274, 289. 
Davis, Gen. Jeff. C, 63, 149, 150, 

153. 



350 



INDEX. 



De Gress, Capt. Francis, 311, 312, 

313. 
Dittoe, Henry, 135. 
Dodge, Gen. G. M., 198, 310, 317. 
Donnalson, Gen. James L., 21. 
Duff, Lt. Col. W.L., 117. 

Elkin, Capt. Thomas A., 235. 
Elliott, Gen. W. L., 201. 
Ewell, Gen. Richard S., 328. 
Ewing, Col. Charles, 27. 
Ewing, Gen. Hugh, 27, 39. 
Ewing, Gen. Thomas, 39. 

Forrest, Gen. N. B., 145. . 
Franklin, Gen. Wm. B., 246. 
Fremont, Gen. John C, 140, 177. 
Furay, William S., 150. 

Garfield, Gen. James A., 72, 264, 
266. 

Geary, Gen. John W., 173, 183, 184, 
317, 318, 319, 320. 

Gilbert, Gen. C. C, 248, 249, 251, 
252. 

Gilmore, Gen. Quincy A., 246. 

Granger, Gen. Gordon, 64, 68, 101, 
111, 143, 155, 268, 271, 272, 273, 
274, 275, 276, 286, 287, 322. 

Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., 18, 34, 36, 
44, 45, 53, 80, 81, 128, 131, 132, 
133, 137, 142, 143, 152, 153, 154, 
155, 160, 161, 162, 172, 177, 184, 
188, 191, 195, 198, 231, 232, 240, 
243, 245, 246, 261, 271, 272, 304,' 
321, 324, 332, 333, 334, 336, 337. 

Grant as a general, 98-127. 

Gurowski, Count Adam, 178. 

Guthrie, James, 216, 217. 

Halleck, Gen. Henry W., 34, 40, 41, 
42, 61, 62, 63, 80, 112, 122, 123, 
140, 142, 143, 248, 249, 321, 322. 

Hancock, Gen. W. S., 195, 197, 307, 
322. 

Hanson, Gen. Roger, 209. 

Harker, Gen. Charles G., 83. 

Harlan, Judge, 223. 

Harney, Gcn.Wm. S., 216, 217. 

Harris, Col. Lew. A., 232. 



Harrison, Col. Thomas, 234, 235. 

Hazen, Gen. Wm. B., 27. 

Hill, Gen. Ambrose P., 103, 291. 

Hindman, Gen. T. C, 291. 

Holt, Gen. Joseph, 225. 

Hood, Gen. John B., 28, 85, 86, 87, 

138, 236, 287. 
Hooker, Gen. Joseph, 96, 110, 113, 

154, 195, 196, 197, 243, 271, 307, 

318, 319, 322, 324. 
Hooker, Fighting Joe, 165-193. 
Howard, Gen. Oliver O., 103, 128, 

185, 186, 188, 299, 300, 302,303, 
304, 307, 319, 322. 
Hunt, Col. Thomas H., 209. 

Ingi'aham, Commodore, 38. 
Ireland, Col. David, 173. 

Jackson, Gen. James S. , 251. 
Jackson, Gen. Stonewall, 128. 
Johnston, Gen. Albert S., 31. 
Johnson, President Andrew, 46, 133, 

253, 254, 255,256, 331. 
Johnson, Col. G. M. L., 69, 83. 
Johnston, Gen. Josej)h E., 39, 40, 47, 

48, 83, 86, 105, 114, 123, 128, 185, 

236,309,310, 311, 317. 
John.son, John M., 213, 214. 
Johnson, Gen. Richard W., 83, 149, 

219. 
Jone6,W., 82. 

Key, Col. Francis, 213, 214. 
Kennedy, Lieut., 343. 

Lee, Gen. Robert E., 95, 96, 97, 105 

106, 108, 109, 113, 114, 138, 151 

152, 243. 
Lincoln, President, 36, 40, 135, 178 

182, 183, 185, 186, 190, 213, 214 

215, 216, 224, 253, 262. 
Logan, Gen. John A., 23, 51, 125 

126, 196, 197, 198, 304, 307, 308 

309,"310, 311,314, 317,322. 
Longstreet, Gen. James, 110, 111 

113, 138, 266, 267, 271, 284, 285 

319, 320. 

Loomis, Gen. C. O., 233. 
Loomis, Col., 343. 



INDEX. 



351 



Lovejoy, Owen, 38. 
Lusk, Samuel, 217. 
Lyon, Gen. Nathaniel, 140. 
Lytle, Gen. William H., 82, 233. 
Lytton, Sir Bulwer, 245. 

Mallory, Eobert, 287. 
Manson, Gen. Malhon D., 66. 
McClellan, Gen. G. B., 51, 81, 96, 

175, 177, 178, 179, 180, 195, 196, 

213, 246, 322, 333. 
MeClernand, Gen. John A., 104, 

231. 
McCook, Gen. Alex. McD., 64, 67, 

68, 79, 137, 138, 148, 149, 153, 

232, 233, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 

252, 263, 265, 266, 267, 286, 289, 

292. 
McCook, Col. Anson G., 232. 
McCook, Gen. Daniel, 39. 
McDowell, Gen. Irwin, 226, 
McKibbon, Col. Joseph, 62. 
McPherson, Gen. James B., 26, 46, 

61, 136, 137, 146, 185, 198, 246, 

309, 310, 311, 317, 322. 
Mathias, Gen., 343. 
Meade, Gen. George B., 101, 105, 

125 197. 
MeiRsi Gen. M. C, 107, 112, 119, 

174, 175, 178. 
Mitchell, Gen. O. McK., 32. 
Morgan, Gen. John H., 144, 328. 
Morton, Gen. St. Clair, 266. 

Negley, Gen. James S., 69, 149, 153, 
256, 266, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 
294, 342, 343. 
. ISTelson, Gen. William, 63, 147, 248, 
249. 

Nesmith, James W., 274. 

Oglesby, Gen. Richard J., 101, 198. 
Osterhaus, Gen. Peter J., 173, 198. 

Palmer, Gen. John M., 149, 256, 

267, 311. 
Patterson, Samuel, 218. 
Pierce, Franklin, 318. 
Pillow, Gen. Gideon, 167, 179, 180, 

181, 187, 191, 273, 274. 



Pirtle, Henry, 216, 217. 
Polk, Gen. Leonidas, 291. 
Pope, Gen. John, 96. 
Porter, Capt. Horace, 74, 75. 
Prentice, George D., 216, 217, 227. 
Price, Gen. Stirling, 140. 

Raine, Major, 139. 

Rains, Gen. Gabriel J., 167. 

Raum, Gen., 343. 

Ripley, Gen. R. S., 167. 

Ritchey, Thomas, 135. 

Roberts, Col. Geo.W., 150. 

Rosecrans, Gen. William S., 67, 71, 
72, 73, 74, 78, 82, 83, 120, 135, 
147, 148, 149, 151, 173, 198, 231, 
252, 257, 258, 261, 262, 263, 264, 
265, 266, 267, 273, 286, 288, 289, 
290, 291, 292, 293, 295, 296, 324. 

Ross, Capt. James R., 1 19. 

Rousseau, Gen. Lovell H., 52, 55, 
71, 137, 149, 176, 243, 251, 252, 
257, 299, 307,318, 322. 

Rousseau, recollections of, 195-241. 

Rousseau, Miss Mary, 257. 

Russell, Capt. William C, 275. 

Saunders, Miss N., 273. 

Schaeft'er, Col., 150. 

Schoepff, Gen. Alvin, 252. 

Schofield, Gen. John M., 138, 324. 

Schurtz, Gen. Carl, 183, 319. 

Scott, Gen.Winfield, 181, 182, 183, 
236, 318. 

Scribner, Col. Benj. F., 70, 71. 

Seward, William H., 221. 

Sheridan, Gen. Philip H., 40,51, 77, 
125, 126, 16.5, 160, 170, 176, 195, 
196, 197, 233, 243, 251, 307, 322, 
325. 

Sheridan as a cavalryman, 128-193. 

Sherman, Gen. Thomas W., 36. 

Sherman, Gen. William T., 58, 61, 
62, 63, 7.5, 76, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 
91, 92, 93, 97, 99, 100, 107, 108, 
109, 110, 113, 115, 116, 117, 118, 
120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 126, 127, 
128, 131, 132, 133, 137, 138, 139, 
147, 154, 15,5, 162, 177, 181, 185, 
186, 188, 229, 230, 231, 236, 240, 



352 



INDEX. 



243, 247, 249, 253, 258, 272, 273, 
302, 303, 304, 309, 310, 311, 314, 
322, 324, 328, 332, 333, 334, 335, 
336, 344. 

Sherman as a strategist, 17-57. 

Sickles, Gen. Daniel, 197. 

Sidell, Major William H., 254, 300, 
301, 302. 

Sill, Gen. Joshua W., 136, 137, 150. 

Smith, Gen. Gustavus W., 179. 

Smith, Gen. Preston, 292, 

Smith, Gen. W. F., 98, 107, 1 10, 
289. 

Smith, Gen. W.S., 138. 

Speed, James S., 201, 216, 217, 223. 

Speed, Joshua, 216, 217. 

Stanley, Gen. David S., 151, 295. 

Stanton, Edwin M., 41, 42. 

Steedman, Gen. James B., 36, 64, 
69, 83, 86, 251, 268, 271,27.5, 276, 
279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 
286, 287, 288, 294, 318, 322. 

Stephens, Alexander H., 97. 

Stevens, Isaac J., 246. 

Stokes, Capt. James J., 250. 

Stolbraud, Major C. J., 312, 313, 
314. 

Stuart, Gen. J. E. B., 144, 328. 

Svvayne, Gen. Wager, 331. 

Talbot, John, 134, 135. 
Terrill, Gen. William, 136, 137, 146. 
Tilghman, Gen. Lloyd, 209. 
Tillson,Gen. Davis, 331. 
Thomas, Gen. George H., 18, 44, 48, 
51, 91, 92, 93, 97, 100, 101, 103, 



106, 107, 109, 110, 117, 118, 122, 
125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132, 133, 
149, 153. 160, 161, 176, 188, 195, 
230, 232, 237, 243, 245, 246, 248, 
249, 252, 256, 257, 261, 262, 265, 
266, 267, 268, 271, 274, 276, 284, 
285, 287, 291, 292, 293, 299, 300, 
311,314,321. 

Thomas as a tactician, 57, 97. 

Thomas, Gen. Lorenzo, 32. 

Trabue,' James, 222. 

Turchin, Gen. John B., 119. 

Tyler, Gen. E. O., 138. 

Vallandigham, C. L., 262. 
Vance, Morgan, 217. 
Van Cleve, Gen. Horatio P., 292. 
Van Pelt, Capt., 82. 

Walker, Gen. H. H., 138. 
Ward, Gen. John H., 217. 
Webster, Gen. Josepli D., 22. 
Wendell, Cornelius, 284. 
Wheeler, Gen. Joseph, 231 , 287, 328. 
Whitaker, Gen. Walter, 173, 184. 
Whiting, Gen.W. H. C, 246. 
Williamson, Lieut. E. S., 139. 
Wilson, Gen. James H., 125. 
Wolfe, Nathaniel, 223. 
Wood, Gen. Thomas J., 68, 69, 83, 

148, 149, 154, 174, 271, 289, 294, 

295 296. 
Worth, Gen. William J., 181. 
Wright, Col., 24. 

Zollicoffer, Gen. Feli.x K., 66, 82. 



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this respect — enjoin upon every reader an earnest perusal of the same. And this is 
the best, nay, all, that he can do. — Home Journal. 

Carlyle is, indeed, quaint and odd ; but he is no less earnest, and true, and noble, 
and grand. He is the one specimen of his kind, we really believe, of philosophers, 
historians, and poets. Of course we find his peculiarities all through the great work, 
and equally of course we find it profoundly interesting in matter and piqu.-iut in 
style. — Episco]')al Recorder. 

Mr. Carlyle has at last completed his graven image, and sets it up for the admira- 
tion of the world. The Smelfunguses and Dryasdusts, whom Carlyle delights to rid- 
icule, have been great helps to him in gathering up the details of a life wluch at best 
was unamiable, if not brutal; stern and unlovely, if not repulsive— the life of a man 
whose love for war in the field was carried into the closet, and penetrated the gentler 
seclusion of the family circle. Mr. Carlyle, with that amazing fancy for hero-wor- 
ship in which he excels, would force us to believe his paragon all that he paints 
him ; and there is certainly power in the picture. The old records have been most 
thoroughly sifted by Carlyle, who seems to have eliminated every grain of wheat from 
bushels of chafi'. — Examinevand Chronicle. 

The reader is out of patience with him in almost every page, yet reads him through 
to the end, and closes the book still wishing for more. He is a man of tremendous 
prejudices and partialities. Frederick is one of his heroes. Carlyle, however, lins 
reasons always to give for his likes and dislikes, and one is sure to be interested in 
the argument, whether he accepts the conclusion or not. — Christian Times aiid 
Witness. 



Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 



Harper & Brothers 7t'/// send the above work by mail, postage prepaid, to any 
^art of the United States, on receipt of tJie price. 



Mr. Motley, the Amirican historian of the United Netherlands— we owe him 
English homage. — London Times. 

'■'•As interesting as a romance., and as reliable as a proposition of Euclid." 



History of 
The United Netherlands. 

JTKOM THE DEATH OF WILLIAM THE SILENT TO THE 8TN0D OF DORT. WITH A 

FULL VIEW OF THE ENGLISH-DUTCH STKUGGLE AGAINST SPAIN, AND 

OF THE OKIGLN AND DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH 

ARMADA. 

By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L., 

CorresiJonding Member of the Institute of France, Author of "The Rise of the 
Dutch Eepublic." 

With Portraits and Map. 

2 vols. Svo, Muslin, $G 00. 

Critical Notices. 

Ilis living and truthful picture of events.— Qtiarterlg Review (London), Jan 
186L 

Fertile as the present ag^ has been in historical works of the highest merit, 
none of them can be ranked above these volumes in the grand qnalities of interest, 
accuracy, and truth. — -Edinburgh Qunrlcrly Uenew, Jan., 1861. 

This noble work — -Weatminster Jicviein (London). 

One of the most fascinating as well as important histories of the century Cor. 

N. Y. Evening Post. 

The careful' study of these volumes will infallibly afford a feast both rich and 
rare Ilaltiniore Republican. 

Already takes a rank among standard works of history London Critic. 

Mr. Motley's prose epic -London Spectator. 

Its pages are pregnant with instruction — London Literary Gazette. 

We may profit by almost every page of his narrative. All the topics which agi. 
tate us now are more or less vividly presented in the History of the United Nether- 
lands -iVi'ii; Vork Times. 

Bears on every page marks of the same vigorous mind that prodviccd "The Rise 
of the Dutch Republic;" but the new work is riper, mellower, and though equally 
racy of the soil, softer flavored. The inspiring idea which breathes through Mr. 
Motley's Iwtories and colors the whole texture of his narrative, is the grandeur of 
that memorable struggle in the 16fh century by which the human mind broke the 
thraldom of religious intolerance and achieved its independence The W'urhl, iV. I'. 

The name of Motley now stands in the very front rank of living historians. His 
Dutch Republic took the world by surprise ; but the favoralde verdict then given 
is now only the more deliberately confirmed on the publication of the continued 
story under the title of the His'ory of the United Netherlcinds. All the nerve, 

and power, and substance of juicy life are there, lending a chann to every page 

Church .Journal., X. F. 

Motli-y, indeed, has produced a prose epic, and his flihting scenes are as real, 
spirited, and life-like as the combats in the Iliad The Press (Phila.). 

His history is as interesting as a romance, nnd as reliable as a proposition of Eu- 
clid. Clio never had a more faithful disciple. We advise every reader whose 
means will permit to become the o\vner of these fascinating volumes, assuring him 
that he mil never regret the investment Christian Intelligencer, N. Y. 

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, " 

Franklin Square, New York. 

Cf?" Harper & Brothers will send the above Work by Mail, postage pre-paid 
fox any distance in the United States under 3000 miles), on receipt of the Men y. 



COMPLETION OF GROTE'S HISTORY OF GREECE. 

A HISTORY OF GREECE, 

^ T..i,T,T.<jT PFRIOD TO THE CL-OSE OF THE GENERA- 
"° T,rCON?K«oVrV wmi *.EX.NOEa THE OKE«. 

BY GEORGE GROTE, ESQ. 
vol XH. contains Portrait, Maps, and Index. Complete in 12 vols. 12mo. 
Muslin, $18 00. 

It is not onen that a work of -^^J -/„"j,'\d.^,'^,rsoontnd ycT^o "oS - 
is such a work so persever,n,ly ca rjed on,^and^^^^^ ^^^ entirely new s,gn>fl- 

compUshed. Mr. Grote has '""^'^f^^^^^, ^vh.ch he, perhaps, thinks the most 
cance a portion of the past '''^;.';';/ °[^ ~o fave been very splendid. He has made 
splendid that has been, »" ^ j'^'f i*''/, '°,^^^^^^ us to realize Greek modes ol th.nk- 
great Greeks live agam before us and uasena i^^ ygge, taking its place with 

fng. He has added a 8;;«/' ^'^^'"['[."^'eTy of them in the s'pecial combination of 
other great histories, and yet not li lie any oi _^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ 3^. 

merits which it exhibits : scholarship »"'* '^^'""lu !„„ and narration different 
customed to demand only m Germans an rt of grot^pm^ ,^^ ^„ „f 

from that of "^^e, different from tha^ of G'l^^onv^^^^^^^ .^^ events of the political 

sustained charm and P'fsuf' "he bus ness of politics ; and, finally, harmonizing 
order, and a wide knowledge of the busmess 01 p ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ j. 

all, a spirit of sober P^' °^°Pll''=b1a?in ' as weU as to record them individually^ 

^»r^l^:-U^r^!:^^a[Iy'r'h^^^nf'the;eop.e of Greece.-DuM. 

UniveTsity Magazine. ,=.i„iinp facultv of intellect, and the excellent eru- 

The acute intelligence ^l^^^'f^^Mr G^roLVbut they will here also find the 

dition every one would ook for from Mr «^ro ^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^ ^,^ „^j„,y 

element which harmonizes these ana vvtno _ .,^^^ 

and solid work could no^^^^^p^^'^^ion'e in English historical literature. Mr 
A work second to that of Gibbon alone in i^ i^istory, and it would be diflicult 

Grote gives the philosophy as well ^^^^'.^^'t'^^^^/i/J'fe.urate learning of the schol- 

to find an author combining >^ '^I'^j^.^r^' °t?sman. The completion of this great 

^Jo^-'lltSVeir-eTaiLf w^^JforSeTf national pride and satisfaction.- 

^'^h^^U^a^^uS'^y'ontiswith^^^ ^^^ -=^1; 

which that history has ^eretomre b en wrat^n tle^^^^^ lUghways and the ob- 
of this work. Mr. Grote's ^'^^'^ '\" ^/^ has seldom been equaled, and 

scurest by-paths of Grecian literature and amic^^^^^^^^ Germans who have n- 

not often approached, in ""''^^^^"fJ^Sv' which eminently characterizes Mr. 

valed it have seldom POsf«'^'''l.^'l^,^",elerely under the 

Grote, of keeping historical ™«g!"^ '°" tI^'^'I^xhro^xg\^o^xx the cordial admira- 

The great charm of Mr. Grote's history t^as Dceni ^ ^^^^^^ ^ ^ ^r^ ^„J 

t^^on he feels for the people whose acts ad fu^^e^^^^^^ 

Mr. Grote farewell heartdy^^^^^^^^ 

Tov^e-^f ISI' td?hi'fhiracters^it produces^^..^^^^^^^^^ „„ , Oree. 

Hift-r^I^'pecraTrerde^"^^^^^ 

%^re'So^ ha'L^now incontestably won forJumseK the title, not merely of a 

historian, but oUhe historian «f Greec^.-Q««^^^^ unrivaled, so far as 

Mr. Grote is, beyond all question, '''^ historic ^^^ .^^^ of 

we know, in the erudition and genius w>\h wh,«^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ „„r intel- 
distant past, and brought home every part and 

lects and our hearts.-Lonrfwi ^ ""^- , adaptation of results to principles, care- 
For becoming dignity of style, ""^"["''^ ™ of fact by theory-for extensive 
ful verification of theory by f=»ct, and impre i^ati^^^^^^ and taste, we have seen no 
and well-weighed lear,|ing,employe_d with in^e^^i^ ^^^^^ Mr. Grote's h.sto- 

historical work of modern times which we worn v 

ry —Morning Chronicle. 

HARPER S. BROTHERS, PUBUSHERS, FRANKUN SQUARE, N. Y. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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